Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Thursday, September 17, 2026 15:31
VIEWED: 571515
PAGE 61 of 112
I guess it's not the launch, it's the programming. I imagine that since it's air-launched, if you launch it from a plane that has taken a different path and launched from a different origin it needs to be reprogrammed?
Quote:
Mission planners program the missile with the target, air defence locations and planned ground path. The missile uses a terrain-hugging flight path, guided by inertial navigation system (INS), image based navigation (IBN), terrain referenced navigation (TRN), and Global Positioning System (GPS) to the target. It is capable of navigating over long distances without GPS support.[8][9]
Upon arrival the missile commences a bunt (climb) manoeuvre to achieve the best probability of target acquisition and penetration. During the cruise portion of the flight, a high resolution thermographic camera (infrared homing) can support navigation by using IBN and for GPS-free target attack. The missile attempts to match a camera image with the planned 3D target model (Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator, DSMAC). If it cannot, it defaults to the other navigation systems, or, to avoid collateral damage, it steers to a pre-designated crash point instead of risking an inaccurate attack.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_KEPD_350
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
A Russian Dissident’s Remarkable Courtroom Speech
Opinion by Anne Applebaum
On February 27, Oleg Orlov, a leading human rights activist at the Human Rights Center Memorial, received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for “discrediting the Russian army.” Following in a long tradition of Soviet dissidents before him, Orlov made a courtroom speech, addressed to those in the room and beyond. Joseph Brodsky, who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature, sparred in 1964 with a Soviet judge who asked him by what right he dared state “poet” as his occupation: “Who ranked you among poets?” Brodsky replied, “No one. Who ranked me as a member of the human race?” That exchange circulated throughout the Soviet Union in handwritten and retyped versions, teaching an earlier generation about bravery and civic courage.
Orlov’s speech will also be reprinted and reread, and someday it will have the same impact too. Here are excerpts, translated by one of his colleagues. Orlov reflected on the legalistic rigamarole in Russia that conceals the regime’s lawlessness. In fact, the law is whatever Putin dictates. Everything else, the lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, are just there for show, to pretend that there is rule of law when there is not.
Let me now speak about my current trial. When it began, I refused to participate. Thanks to that, I had the opportunity to reread The Trial, a novel by Franz Kafka, during the court sessions. The current situation in our country has a lot in common with the world that Kafka’s protagonist inhabits in the book. We live with the same absurdity and arbitrariness, camouflaged by a formal adherence to some pseudo-legal procedures.
Here we are accused of “discrediting the military,” but no one explains what this means or how it differs from legitimate criticism. We are accused of “spreading deliberately false information” without anyone bothering to prove that it is indeed false. The Soviet regime used exactly the same methods when it branded any criticism as lies. Our attempts to prove the veracity of this information are punished as crimes … We are being given prison sentences for doubting that aggression against a neighboring country is being carried out for the sake of international peace and security.
This is absurd.
Kafka’s hero has no idea, until the end of the novel, of the nature of the accusation against him. He is ruled guilty and executed anyway. In Russia, the accusation is formally announced, but it is impossible to understand it within the framework of law and logic. Unlike Kafka’s hero, we do understand why we are being detained, arrested, sentenced, or killed: We are being punished for daring to criticize the authority. That is completely banned in modern Russia.
More at https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-russian-dissident-s-remarkable-
courtroom-speech/ar-BB1jfx9I
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:I guess German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is frightened into inaction by Putin's threats to nuke Germany if it further aids Ukraine.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I guess it's not the launch, it's the programming. I imagine that since it's air-launched, if you launch it from a plane that has taken a different path and launched from a different origin it needs to be reprogrammed?
Germany confirms bugging of Bundeswehr Ukraine war talks
03/02/2024, March 2, 2024
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-confirms-bugging-of-bundeswehr-ukraine-w
ar-talks/a-68424687
Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a quick probe into a Russian leak of secret talks about the Ukraine war. The German military confirmed the talks were real, but couldn't rule out that the recording had been edited.
Germany's Defense Ministry on Saturday confirmed the authenticity of a recording of a confidential discussion between high-ranking Bundeswehr officers regarding the war in Ukraine that was leaked by Russian state media.
"According to our assessment, a conversation in the air force division was intercepted. We are currently unable to say for certain whether changes were made to the recorded or transcribed version that is circulating on social media," a spokeswoman for the ministry said.
The head of Russian state broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday published what she said was an audio recording between German officers, including the chief of the Air Force, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described it as "a very serious matter."
"It will now be investigated very carefully, very intensively, and very quickly," Scholz said on Saturday during a visit to Rome.
What else was on the audio
As aired by Simonyan on Telegram, the audio includes a discussion about whether Taurus cruise missiles would be capable of destroying a bridge, seemingly a reference to the new bridge linking Russian-occupied Crimea to the Russian mainland over the Kerch Strait.
The recording was apparently made from a video conference between four Luftwaffe officers discussing Russia's war in Ukraine.
On the audio leak, they spoke about ways German officers could supply Ukrainians with targeting information without appearing to be directly involved in the conflict with Russia.
What is on the supposed recording of German officers?
The clip also contains reference to the British having "a few people on the ground" in connection with the deployment of their Storm Shadow cruise missiles delivered to Ukraine.
German outlet Der Spiegel reported that the virtual meeting did not take place via a secure line, but via the Webex platform.
German lawmakers alarmed
"If this story turns out to be true, it would be a highly problematic incident," Konstantin von Notz, the chairman of the Bundestag's parliamentary oversight committee, told broadcast network Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
The Green party politician said it should be determined "whether this is a one-off incident or a structural safety problem."
Roderich Kiesewetter, of the center-right Christian Democratic Union and deputy chairman of the Bundestag's parliamentary oversight committee said it seemed that Russia had leaked the conversation to put pressure on Germany not to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
"A number of other conversations will certainly have been intercepted and may be leaked at a later date for Russia's benefit," he told broadcaster ZDF.
Scholz has so far refused to send the Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
Earlier this week, he said the missiles range and the likely need for assistance from German Bundeswehr troops was problematic and could be construed as direct or indirect participation in the war.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova demanded that Germany "promptly" provide an explanation and claimed the audio was evidence of a "
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
There are things people SHOULD be afraid of, and if they're not afraid, they're crazy and shouldn't be making national decisions.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Would Putin stop if he wins in Ukraine? Let’s not find out.
The cost of hoping for the best from the Russian leader could cost the West dearly
By Marc Champion | Mar 3, 2024
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/03/03/world/stopping-puti
n/
Addressing his nation on Thursday, a buoyant Russian President Vladimir Putin ridiculed the very notion that he might attack Europe.
Not only was that idea nonsense, he said, but it’s the West that was picking targets to attack in Russia, at the risk of nuclear Armageddon. It’s tempting to roll your eyes and move on. Yet the question of what the Kremlin does next if it wins in Ukraine is too important to ignore.
A debate is underway, particularly in Washington, on whether to pressure Ukraine into a negotiated settlement with Russia or help its continued defense. If Putin has no further ambitions beyond what he has seized in Ukraine already, then the interests of Europe and the U.S. might indeed be best served by forcing Kyiv to settle by starving it of the means to fight — as brutal a betrayal as that would be.
If Putin really is just fighting a limited defensive war, you could go further to ask why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and its core Article V collective defense clause are needed at all. The same would go for the sudden and expensive drive to rearm in Europe.
Yet getting that calculation wrong would be catastrophic, and according to the eastern Europeans who — unlike U.S. House Republicans — have spent centuries living and fighting with Russia, it is wrong. If Putin’s goal in Ukraine is instead to restore the sway that Moscow lost with the USSR’s collapse in 1991, which he has famously described as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century, then he may pause his invasion to regroup, but he won’t stop until Kyiv is fully under Russian control.
This is the future that beckons if Putin isn’t forced to give up his dreams of joining the pantheon of the Russian Empire’s greatest leaders, regathering lands that he sees as rightfully Russian, alongside his idols Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.
After that, there would be every reason to expect a triumphant and vengeful Putin to try to recover more of the control that Russia used to wield, from the Balkans to the Baltic States. What he’s looking for, Putin said during his speech, is nothing less than a new security architecture and international order for Eurasia.
His denials of aggressive intent aren’t much help in deciding who is right. For one thing, Putin as president has repeatedly proved the skills in disinformation he learned during his KGB tenure. To name just one instance, he’d ridiculed the idea that he would invade Ukraine, right up until he ordered close to 200,000 troops over the border.
But just because Putin is a serial liar doesn’t prove he is being untruthful now. Nor does it reveal how much Russian TV propagandists routinely talk about retaking Poland or nuking London. So, what actual evidence of Putin's intent do we have?
One piece comes from the rest of Putin’s address, which — like many of his orations — was filled with pledges to keep expanding the military, protect Russian "compatriots,” continue the so-called special military operation in Ukraine, create a new security order and increase birth rates to boost the population. He made clear that he considers himself to be at war with the West, which he accused of wanting to turn Russia into a "dying space.” This, I think, he sincerely believes.
His comments, like the invasion of Ukraine itself, were a call for Russia’s growth as a great power, a centuries-long project that always had rolling geographical limits. The further Moscow's control extended, the bigger Russia was and the bigger the buffer zone it needed to feel secure.
A second piece of evidence comes from the Kremlin’s continued efforts to destabilize Moldova, a mainly Romanian-speaking ex-Soviet republic that’s now bidding to join the European Union. An opportunity to unseat President Ma
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Oh no!!
More fear mongering from SECOND!
*****
As usual, your posts cancel each other. Taken together, your recent posts paint a compelling picture that the CIA engineered a coup in Ukraine in 2014, and that NATO and western spooks have been weaponizing Ukraine ever since. (NYT).
SURPISE!
Isn't that what Russia has been complaining about all along?
Your posts also point to the fact that Russia was willing to leave Ukraine (except Crimea) and agree to Ukraine in the EU in exchange for neutral status, demilitarization, protection of the rights of Russian speakers, and a 5-nation security guarantee. (WSJ. BTW, Austria is neutral by agreement and they've done well for thrmselves. Ukraine could have too.)
SURPISE!
Doesn't that match Russia goals stated at the very beginning?
Now you want to drag up that whole "Russia is going to swarm the EU in an orgy of land-grabbing" nonsense? Again?
You have an light grip on logic and a nonexistant one on reality.
Come out of that dark mental space you've locked yourself into.
Get out in the sunshine, breathe fresh air, do something you can be proud of.
You'll feel better and you'll be on the road to sanity.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Unmasking the Motives: Why Russia invaded Ukraine
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Now you want to drag up that whole "Russia is going to swarm the EU in an orgy of land-grabbing" nonsense? Again?
By John Fee | March 3, 2024
https://encyclopediageopolitica.com/2024/03/03/why-russia-invaded-ukra
ine/
Russia’s motivations for launching the largest military campaign in Europe since the Second World War remain fiercely debated. In this piece, John Fee examines an assortment of leading perspectives, including official and academic viewpoints, to determine what conclusions might be drawn.
Introduction: why does it matter to understand Putin’s motives?
From a national security perspective, how serious is a Russian military threat beyond Ukraine and how much national treasure should be committed to preparing for it? From an enterprise point of view, should one’s business be investing in costly infrastructure throughout territories that are likely to be subject to future military action? What is more, the war in Ukraine has shown there are a whole host of second and third-order consequences that will follow great power military interventions—from global food insecurity, mass migration, and rising energy prices, to name a few. For those bearing the weight of tackling such questions, it’s likely that their view is significantly shaped by their assumptions regarding the motivations underpinning Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Hence, to examine the matter of Putin’s motives is of vital importance to preparing one’s analytical foundations for the task ahead.
Liddell Hart, a distinguished British strategist, once emphasised the need to understand opposing viewpoints on matters of grand strategy and military affairs, or “the other side of the hill.” To this end, this article examines a select range of viewpoints on Putin’s motivation for escalating military action against Ukraine on 24 February with the aim of assessing their relative worth. It is my aim to analyse Putin’s motivations without moral judgment, presenting them as I perceive them to be, rather than how I might wish them to be. Furthermore, it should go without saying that this article will fall short of capturing the sum total of available opinions on this matter. So, in acknowledgement of this limitation, I have narrowed my analysis to the four most common themes I have encountered in the realm of public opinion on Putin’s assumed motives for supporting military action in Ukraine, each examined through the perspective of a notable advocate:
1. Vladimir Putin: Russian Official Position
2. Serhii Plokhy: Imperial Russia & Tsar Putin
3. John Mearsheimer: NATO Expansion & Offensive Realism
4. Mike McFaul: Democratic Expansion & Regime Threat
I will structure each perspective in two parts: (1) to fairly represent each argument from its respective vantage point; and (2) to respond to each argument with my own views. Finally, I will synthesise my remarks to form a summary for better understanding Putin’s motive in attacking Ukraine. . . .
Beyond the Impasse: Conclusion
In conclusion, this article identified 14 key assumptions to interpret Putin’s motives for invading Ukraine. I argue that:
(1) Putin sees the advancement of liberal democracy as a strategic facade employed by the U.S. to maintain its global supremacy, which clashes with Putin’s aspirations to maximise Russia’s share of world power—particularly in its perceived sphere of influence;
(2) Putin observes a decline in U.S. power and believes it no longer possesses the capability to pursuit a unilateral grand strategy to preserve its global hegemony—leading to the conclusion that the existing international system is untenable and ripe for contest;
(3) Putin views cross-border liberal democratic expansion as a credible threat to his authoritarian regime;
(4) Putin views U.S. external influence activities in its perceived sphere of influence as acts that must be confronted—given their threat to his authoritarian regime and a
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The Big Lesson From the Last U.S. Invasion of Russia
What the Allied intervention in the Russian civil war teaches us about Ukraine today.
By Theodore Bunzel | March 3, 2024, 6:00 PM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/03/the-big-lesson-from-the-wests-las
t-invasion-of-russia/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921
Review of A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention Into the Russian Civil War, Anna Reid, Basic Books, 400 pp., $32, February 2024
Download all Anna Reid’s books for free from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?&req=Anna+Reid&phrase=1&view
=simple&column=def&sort=year&sortmode=DESC
Northern Russia must have felt bitterly cold to U.S. soldiers, even though nearly all were from Michigan. On Sept. 4, 1918, 4,800 U.S. troops landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia, only 140 miles from the Arctic Circle. Three weeks later, they were plunged into battle against the Red Army among towering pine forests and subarctic swamps, alongside the British and French. Ultimately, 244 U.S. soldiers died from the fighting over two years. Diaries of U.S. troops paint a harrowing picture of first contact:
We run into a nest of machine-guns, we retire. [Bolsheviks] still shelling heavily. Perry and Adamson of my squad wounded, bullet clips my shoulder on both sides. … Am terribly tired, hungry and all in, so are the rest of the boys. Casualties in this attack 4 killed and 10 wounded.
These unlucky souls represented just one prong of the sprawling and ill-fated Allied intervention in the Russian civil war. From 1918 to 1920, the United States, Britain, France, and Japan sent thousands of troops from the Baltics to northern Russia to Siberia to Crimea—and millions of dollars in aid and military supplies to the anti-communist White Russians—in an abortive attempt to strangle Bolshevism in its crib. It’s one of the most complicated and oft-forgot foreign-policy failures of the 20th century, captivatingly retold in technicolor detail by Anna Reid in her new book, A Nasty Little War: The Western Intervention Into the Russian Civil War.
The specifics of the conflict, which Reid brilliantly weaves alongside personal diaries from the participants, often feel otherworldly. Japanese troops occupied Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East. The mercurial French—at first the most hawkishly pro-intervention out of all the Allies—led the occupation of southern Ukraine, tussling with the Reds over cities now familiar to readers: Mykolaiv, Kherson, Sevastopol, Odessa. The British—who invested the most in the intervention, including 60,000 troops—were crawling all over Russia’s fringes: defending Baku from the oncoming Turks, conducting naval sabotage against the Bolsheviks in the Baltics, and ultimately evacuating the Whites from Black Sea ports as they crumbled in the face of a Red Army onslaught.
The disturbing question hanging over Reid’s excellent book is whether the West is doomed to repeat history. The intervention failed, and if you squint hard enough, today’s intervention in Ukraine may appear similarly futile in the face of a vast and determined Russia with a seemingly endless well of materiel, manpower, and political will. It’s what the far-right flank of Republicans in Congress, Viktor Orban in Hungary, and former U.S. President Donald Trump would lead you to believe. A sense of hopelessness articulated by Edmund Ironside, the British commander of Allied forces in northern Russia during the intervention: “Russia is so enormous that it gives one a feeling of smothering.”
But despite the strong historical echoes, the differences between the two interventions are more instructive than their similarities. A close study poses perhaps an even bigger question: What conditions make for a successful foreign intervention? Yes, the Allies bungled things, but in fairness, they mostly failed because of what was out of their control, rather than what was in it. The most limiting factor was their feckless (and noxious) White Russian allies, a disparate group of anti-Bolshevik socialists and incompetent former Tsarist
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
File this under #cheese_eating_surrender_monkeys
NATO has been around since 1949 and yet it still doesn’t know how to do this:
Europe's ‘Military Schengen’ Era of Military Cooperation Is Here
The first step for Europe’s common military ambitions is figuring out free movement.
By Anchal Vohra | March 4, 2024, 7:06 AM
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/04/europe-military-autonomy-nato-sch
engen/?tpcc=recirc_latest062921
In late January, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland signed an agreement to create a military transport corridor between them, giving a much needed boost to the long discussed but rarely pursued goal of improving military mobility across Europe. Siemtje Möller, Germany’s parliamentary state secretary for defense, said the corridor was taking military mobility “on the road to a true military Schengen.” It was not the first time European policymakers have floated the idea of adapting the existing visa-free movement of people and commercial goods in the Schengen zone to the movement of troops and military equipment all over Europe. But the idea is now clearly gaining momentum.
In late January, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland signed an agreement to create a military transport corridor between them, giving a much needed boost to the long discussed but rarely pursued goal of improving military mobility across Europe. Siemtje Möller, Germany’s parliamentary state secretary for defense, said the corridor was taking military mobility “on the road to a true military Schengen.” It was not the first time European policymakers have floated the idea of adapting the existing visa-free movement of people and commercial goods in the Schengen zone to the movement of troops and military equipment all over Europe. But the idea is now clearly gaining momentum.
The idea of a military Schengen first came up after Crimea’s annexation by Russia. Ten years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and two years after its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Europe is realizing that it better needs to prepare for the possibility that Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide to use his military even further westward. European military officials are digging into lessons learned in the Cold War—among them are specific lessons about military mobility.
Yet, several experts, diplomats and military sources told FP that the progress is much slower than desired. “Liberalization of rules is endorsed by everyone,” Tomasz Szatkowski, Poland’s permanent representative to NATO, told Foreign Policy. “But the problem is we have been talking about it since 2015.” They said Europe has acknowledged that the tensions of the cold war era may have returned and that European countries have a “long way to go” to effectively move their men and material.
The passage of anything related to a military mission in Europe is beset with obstacles, ranging from bureaucratic hurdles and gaping infrastructural gaps that can cause decisive delays. Urmas Paet, a European Union parliamentarian from the Baltic state of Estonia and the vice chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, rated military mobility to three out of 10 and said currently it can take anywhere between “weeks or at least more than a week” to send supplies to the Baltic states.
The paperwork is onerous. Several approvals need to be acquired from various ministries in various countries, and at times in different regions within a nation. Most roads and bridges have been built for civilian use and are unlikely to withstand the weight of heavy military hardware. Since the central European fuel pipeline doesn’t extend to the eastern states, longer delays in fuel supply could be a decisive factor. Furthermore, the rail gauge in former Soviet states differs in size from European rail gauge, and a transfer of thousands of troops and equipment from one train to another at a time of war will make it an even more time-consuming task.
Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former NATO commander who was the first proponent of “Military Schengen” and likely coined the term,
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Medvedev gave a lecture on March 4 called “Geographical and Strategic Borders” at the Russian World Youth Festival.
Medvedev indicated that Russia is more interested in subjugating Ukraine’s people than taking its territory. Medvedev claimed that Russia’s “enemies constantly insist that Russia’s main goal is to seize Ukrainian lands” but, as the “riches” of Ukraine’s lands, such as wheat, steel, gas, and coal are “almost absent,” the main value that Russia seeks from its occupation of Ukraine is through controlling its people.[13] Medvedev also claimed that the concept of a sovereign Ukrainian state and the concept of a Ukrainian national identity that is not Russian must “disappear forever.”[14] ISW continues to document how Russian authorities are repeatedly engaging in large-scale and deliberate ethnic cleansing campaigns and systematically working to eliminate Ukrainian language, culture, history, and ethnicity in areas of Ukraine that Russia occupies.[15]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-4-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:The Real Reason Trump Loves Putin
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Fuck Ukraine.
A new book explores the American right’s tendency to admire and want to emulate foreign dictators.
By Franklin Foer | March 1, 2024
https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/03/jacob-heilbrunn-amer
ica-last-trump-putin/677609/
For nearly the entirety of the past decade, a question has stalked, and sometimes consumed, American politics: Why do Donald Trump and his acolytes heap such reverent praise on Vladimir Putin? The question is born of disbelief. Adoration of the Russian leader, who murders his domestic opponents, kidnaps thousands of Ukrainian children, and interferes in American presidential elections, is so hard to comprehend that it seems only plausibly explained by venal motives—thus the search to find the supposed kompromat the Kremlin lords over Trump or compromising business deals that Trump has pursued in Moscow.
But there’s a deeper, more nefarious truth about people on the right’s baffling unwillingness to criticize the Kremlin: They actually share its worldview. Putin worship isn’t even an aberration in the history of conservatism, merely the latest instance of a long tradition of admiring foreign dictators. Over the past century, without ever really blushing, the American right has similarly celebrated the likes of Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, and just about every Latin American military junta that called itself anti-communist.
The right hails these dictators as ideological comrades in the war to preserve traditional society, the values of order and patriarchy, against the assault of the decadent left. Unlike conservative politicians in the United States, these foreign leaders don’t even need to bother with mouthing encomiums to concepts like tolerance, freedom, and democracy. They can deliver reactionary politics in the unvarnished form that some hard-liners on the American right have always hoped would take root in their own country. As the journalist Jacob Heilbrunn argues in America Last, his history of conservatives’ romance with dictators, “Conservatives have searched for a paradise abroad that can serve as a model at home.”
Heilbrunn makes the interesting decision to begin his history on the eve of World War I. A primary villain in these chapters is the newspaper columnist H. L. Mencken, perhaps the most celebrated curmudgeon in the history of American letters. Walter Lippmann called him “the most powerful influence on this whole generation of educated people.” A conservative movement as such did not exist in the earliest decades of the 20th century, just a constellation of reactionary intellectuals and their wealthy patrons who nodded in agreement, nostalgic for the antebellum South and a world before mass suffrage. Mencken, the most eloquent of the reactionaries, put their cantankerous thoughts into ornate, often quite funny prose.
Mencken believed fervently in the superiority of German civilization—and in the leadership of its racist, war-mongering monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm. This reverence stemmed from ancestral pride; Mencken’s paternal grandfather came from Saxony. But his affection for Germany also grew from his disdain of American democracy, which he believed ceded control of society to mediocre politicians. By contrast, he liked that Germany was “governed by an oligarchy of its best men.” Just before America officially entered World War I, he submitted an article to The Atlantic in which he imagined that Germany might one day conquer the United States and create a new utopia on its shores. Ellery Sedgwick, then the editor of this magazine, had the good sense to reject it. “I have no desire to foment treason,” Sedgwick wrote him.
At the height of the war, Mencken worried that he might be persecuted for propagandizing for an enemy regime, so much so that he buried the German keepsakes he collected and a diary from his wartime visit to the country in his Baltimore backyard. But in the years that followed the c
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian milbloggers responded to the sinking of the Sergei Kotov by decrying the Russian military command’s lack of response to the incident and mounting a wider critique against the bureaucratic inertia of the Russian military apparatus. Russian milbloggers alleged that this is the fourth Ukrainian attack on the Sergei Kotov since Russia’s full-scale invasion began and that the crew managed to repel similar Ukrainian attacks in July, August, and September of 2023.[8]
A prominent Kremlin-affiliated milblogger noted that the Sergei Kotov was inadequately equipped to defend itself against such an attack, and many milbloggers questioned why the ship did not have systems to defend against naval drones considering the crew had experienced similar attacks before.[9]
One prominent milblogger stated in a post published on March 5 (which has been viewed 1.7 million times as of this writing) that the Russian military command has no response to the sinking of the Sergei Kotov because no one likes to tell the truth to the military command and that the military command refuses to learn important lessons from past experiences to improve the military.[10]
Another milblogger emphasized that it would be very important for the Russian command to listen to the crew of the Sergei Kotov to improve and modernize naval vessels and defensive procedures in the future.[11]
Another milblogger responded to this assessment and claimed that the Russian command is extraordinarily unlikely to do so because of an ”administrative guillotine” in the Russian military bureaucracy that prevents such learning and innovation, as well as the command’s larger cultural proclivity to cover up mistakes instead of addressing them.[12]
The ire expressed by Russian milbloggers towards the Russian military apparatus represents a longstanding source of discontent for pro-war military commentators. Miroslava Reginskaya, the wife of imprisoned ultra-nationalist and former Russian officer Igor Girkin, posted on March 5 an archival letter written by Girkin in 2018 wherein Girkin complained about the incompetence of Russian commanders causing the deaths of Russian soldiers and called for “Stalinist level repressions” against such commanders.[13]
Girkin emphasized that all echelons of the Russian command are filled with such “scum” that contribute to “thousands of large and small disasters, based on incompetence, stupid immense greed, and disregard for people.” Girkin’s 2018 critique about the inability and lack of willingness of the Russian command to address its mistakes, internalize lessons learned, and disseminate them across the Russian military remains a central component of Russian information space critiques against the Russian military machine nearly six years later in 2024.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-5-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
EU proposes €1.5 billion plan to prop up defense industry
By Rudy Ruitenberg | Mar 5, 12:44 PM
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2024/03/05/eu-proposes-16-bi
llion-plan-to-prop-up-defense-industry/
With each of the EU’s 27 member states in charge of its defense budget, economic nationalism has often pushed countries such as France and Germany to buy local rather than European. The resulting fragmentation has a price: A European Parliament report in 2019 found the costs of duplication in security and defense policy among the bloc are at least €22 billion a year.
“In the last two years, we have faced the situation of a defense industry without sufficient production capacity to meet the sharp increase of demand,” the European Commission’s executive vice president, Margrethe Vestager, said at the news conference. “We have been vividly confronted with a well-known structural fragmentation along national borders that limits economies of scale, and creates mistrust, while preventing genuine competition between industrial players. This entails major inefficiencies, and insufficient value for taxpayer’s money.”
From February 2022 to June 2023, EU states spent more than €100 billion on defense acquisitions, according to Vestager, who said almost 80% was spent outside the EU, with the U.S. alone accounting for more than 60%. She said spending that sort of money outside the bloc is no longer sustainable.
What matters now is that the EU defense-industrial base grows rapidly so Russian President Vladimir Putin understands “we are extremely serious,” Breton said.
He added that European defense production will not only match that of Russia — “we will do it much better.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Nobody cared 2 years ago. Nobody cares now.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Britain 'prepared to loan Ukraine all frozen Russian central bank assets in UK'
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/06/russia-ukraine-war-
live-emmanuel-macron-urges-ukraines-allies-not-to-be-cowards
Britain is prepared to loan Ukraine all frozen Russian central bank assets in the UK on the basis that Russia will be forced to pay reparations to Ukraine at the end of the war, the UK foreign secretary David Cameron has said.
He said the assets would be used as surety for the payment of the reparations.
The plan is more radical than proposals discussed in the European Union for Ukraine to be given only the windfall profits from the Russian central bank assets being held by the West. The annual windfall profits are estimated at $4bn.
Cameron told peers on Tuesday night:
There is an opportunity to use something like a syndicated loan or a bond that effectively uses the frozen Russian assets as a surety to give that money to the Ukrainians knowing that we will recoup it when reparations are paid by Russia. That may be a better way of doing it. We are aiming for the maximum amount of G7 and EU unity on this but if we cannot get it I think we will have to move ahead with allies that want to take this action.
Cameron said he did not think the bond plan would undermine the reputation of the City of London in any way.
It is the first time Cameron has spoken about the proposal openly in such detail, and probably underscores the political support the plan has in the US, but not the EU.
The plan would be especially helpful to Ukraine if the US Congress continues to block an extension of aid to Ukraine since it would provide Ukraine with a new source of funds to buy armaments, and fund its budget deficit.
The G7 has been debating for over a year whether the Russian central bank assets frozen at the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could also be seized without undermining faith in the international financial system.
The EU estimates around €260bn in Central Bank of Russia assets have been immobilised in the form of securities and cash in the jurisdictions of the G7 partners, the EU and Australia, with more than two-thirds of those immobilised in the EU.
Belgium is thought to have control of as much as 190bn of the assets, housed in its Euro clear financial clearing house, and is the most reluctant to follow the kind of radical plan set out by Cameron. It says it is already facing a series of court cases mainly in Russia, and its stance has the backing of France and Germany.
The US Treasury, initially reluctant to seize Central Bank assets due to the assumed sanctity of sovereign state assets, has warmed to the idea of a bond. The US is estimated to have $40 to $60bn worth of Russian assets, and the UK closer to £25bn, but no official figure has been disclosed.
The strength of the proposal is that seized assets would be deemed to have been returned to Russia after the payment of reparations. The proposal’s weakness is that it assumes Ukraine will win a military victory and a defeated Moscow will be prepared to pay reparations for the damage it caused to Ukraine, something that now seems unimaginable.
Vladimir Putin has already retaliated by seizing the assets of some US companies operating in Russia.
It is estimated Ukraine needs €100bn a year to fight off the Russian invasion, and another €50bn a year for reconstruction.
Similar appropriations of state assets have happened before, most notably the UN-sanctioned US seizure of billions of dollars of Iraqi funds that were earmarked for reparations for Kuwait after the 1990 invasion. Russia would veto any UN move to endorse the seizure of its assets
The foreign secretary said he did not think Russian President Vladimir Putin would stop at Ukraine, saying “If we allowed Russia any form of win in Ukraine Moldova would be at risk and some of the Baltic states would be at risk.”
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Russia has lost 419,020 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on March 5.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nobody cared 2 years ago. Nobody cares now.
This number includes 1,070 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
According to the report, Russia has also lost
6,657 tanks,
12,688 armored fighting vehicles,
13,423 vehicles and fuel tanks,
10,258 artillery systems,
1,007 multiple launch rocket systems,
700 air defense systems,
347 airplanes,
325 helicopters,
7,863 drones,
25 ships and boats,
and one submarine.
https://kyivindependent.com/general-staff-russia-has-lost-419-020-troo
ps-in-ukraine-since-feb-24-2022/
General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
The total combat losses of the enemy from 02/24/22 to 03/05/24 were approximately:
of personnel - about 419,020 (+1,070) persons,
tanks - 6657 (+9) units,
armored fighting vehicles / APV - 12688 (+28) units,
artillery systems – 10,258 (+48) units,
RSZV / MLRS – 1007 (+3) units,
anti-aircraft warfare systems - 700 (+2) units,
aircraft – 347 (+0) units,
helicopters – 325 (+0) units,
UAV operational-tactical level – 7863 (+18),
cruise missiles - 1917 (+1),
ships / boats / warships / boats - 25 (+0) units,
submarines - 1 (+0) units,
vehicles and fuel tanks – 13423 (+49) units,
special equipment / special equipment - 1630 (+9)
Data are being updated.
Beat the occupier! Together we will win! Our strength is in the truth!/ Strike the occupier! Let's win together! Our strength is in the truth!
https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/posts/pfbid0sEc86hfvZF8Pajgyt
y1BczNjNVq6cSywHMaXo3dBJ7sJxfdHKWuvYdF68gs96wuul?locale=uk_UA
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Caught between Trump and Putin, are European countries ready to go nuclear?
By Joshua Keating | Mar 6, 2024, 6:00am EST
https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24091566/europe-nuclear-weapons-pol
and-germany-france-putin-trump
At the height of the Cold War in 1961, French President Charles de Gaulle famously questioned the value of American security guarantees, asking then-President John F. Kennedy if the US would really be willing to “trade New York for Paris” in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It was because of these doubts that, under de Gaulle’s leadership, France developed its independent nuclear deterrent, which it maintains to this day.
Lately, de Gaulle’s old question has started to seem disturbingly timely.
Just last week, after French President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea of European NATO members sending ground troops into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western leaders that Russia has “weapons that can hit targets on their territory” and that they were risking the “destruction of civilization.” The takeaway was unignorable: After years in which it was a largely forgotten political issue on the continent, the continent’s leaders clearly can no longer afford to ignore the threat of nuclear weapons.
Thanks to a renewed threat from Russia as well as doubts about America’s security umbrella thanks to the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House next year, the topic of nuclear deterrence is back in a big way, and has some European leaders to talking openly about whether their countries should acquire nuclear deterrents of their own — independent from a suddenly less predictable US.
Leaders in Poland, literally on the frontline of the conflict between NATO and Russia, have proposed hosting NATO nuclear weapons on their soil. Manfred Weber, a senior German politician who leads the center-right European People’s Party, the largest grouping in the EU parliament, recently argued for Europe to develop its own nuclear deterrent. He told Politico: “Europe must build deterrence, we must be able to deter and defend ourselves …We all know that when push comes to shove, the nuclear option is the really decisive one.”
The idea of such a “Euronuke” is not new, but the fact that the discussion is being revived in a serious way is a telling indicator of Europe’s existential anxieties in the age of Putin and Trump.
More at https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24091566/europe-nuclear-weapons-pol
and-germany-france-putin-trump
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitri Peskov reiterated on March 6 that Russia will only use nuclear weapons if “something” threatens Russia’s existence — a longstanding Russian nuclear weapon usage talking point.[18] Kremlin officials continue to invoke nuclear threats as part of ongoing Russian information operations aimed at weakening Western support for Ukraine and deterring Western aid to Ukraine.
Peskov also accused the West of “routinizing” the topic of nuclear war, which Peskov called “extremely dangerous” and “irresponsible,” despite the fact that it is, in fact, Russian officials, who most frequently openly threaten employing nuclear weapons.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-6-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ukraine’s first lady declines Biden’s State of the Union invite
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-first-lady-olena-zelenska-decl
ine-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-invitation-yulia-navalnaya/
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Lithuanian intelligence: Russia can fight Ukraine 'at a similar intensity' for at least 2 years
by Martin Fornusek | March 7, 2024 9:17 AM
https://kyivindependent.com/reuters-russia-can-fight-ukraine-for-at-le
ast-2-years-lithuanian-intelligence-says/
"Russia has financial, human, material, and technical resources to continue the war at a similar intensity in at least the near term," the report drafted by the counter-intelligence State Security Department (VSD) and the military's Defense Intelligence and Security Service said, clarifying that the "near term" denotes six months to two years.
The report is here https://www.vsd.lt/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/GR-2024-02-15-EN-1.pdf
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
How can both of these be true at the same time?
Quote:
Russia has lost 419,020 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on March 5.
Quote:
Lithuanian intelligence: Russia can fight Ukraine 'at a similar intensity' for at least 2 years
Answer: They can't.
SECOND, even THUGR is tired of you splattering nonsense across the topic.
Get a grip on your runaway fanaticism, willya?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I think from now on I should just post lists of Ukrainian defeats and losses. Counterbalance the frothing and hyperventilating with reality.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Vicki Nuland's departure, and her replacement a blow to Ukraine:
Quote:
...Biden is also, to put it mildly, not a fighter, so the opportune time to leave for Nuland is now. Blinken will be with the boss to the end, like a faithful steward. Nuland does not need to transfer her portfolio to the Trumpists who hate her; who will ask unpleasant questions about her, and delve into sensitive details.
Therefore, she will transfer the portfolio to John Bass, another professional diplomat with similar views, whose track record, however, should make Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky wince. Bass is not a new clinician. More like a pathologist.
He was the ambassador to Afghanistan when the Americans fled, leaving the country to the Taliban. And as ambassador to Georgia when Washington’s protégé Mikheil Saakashvili lost power. And also as ambassador to Turkey, when President Recep Erdogan, resisting an attempted military coup, conducted a large-scale purge of American agents and agents of influence.
That is to say, the person who inherits all the Ukrainian problems from Nuland is not very fortunate, but he certainly knows how to destroy the evidence and seal the premises. But this is exactly what Nuland and Biden need in Ukraine
https://johnhelmer.net/nothing-in-nulands-life-became-her-like-the-lea
ving-of-it/#more-89522
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Ukraine’s first lady declines Biden’s State of the Union invite
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-first-lady-olena-zelenska-decl
ine-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-invitation-yulia-navalnaya/
She mad she can't live that Kardashian lifestyle off the US Taxpayer anymore.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:In WWII, Russian deaths ran into the tens of millions, and yet Russia kept fighting at greater and greater intensity. At the end of WWII, Russia even started a new front in Japan. (By the way, Japan is still demanding Russia return the land it stole on the last day of WWII.) I'm pretty sure that Russia can keep fighting despite less than a million deaths in Ukraine. As far as anyone knows, guys like Stalin and Putin don't even notice how many people are killed since it is all meaningless statistics to politicians. "If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics" - Stalin
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
How can both of these be true at the same time?Quote:
Russia has lost 419,020 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on March 5.Quote:
Lithuanian intelligence: Russia can fight Ukraine 'at a similar intensity' for at least 2 years
Answer: They can't.
SECOND, even THUGR is tired of you splattering nonsense across the topic.
Get a grip on your runaway fanaticism, willya?
The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands_dispute
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Why only Ukrainian defeat? Russia has ambitions for European defeat:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I think from now on I should just post lists of Ukrainian defeats and losses. Counterbalance the frothing and hyperventilating with reality.
A senior Russian officer has warned of a full-scale war in Europe
Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the Russian army’s Military Academy of the General Staff, made the comments in an article for “Military Thought”, a defence ministry publication, the state RIA news agency reported on Thursday.
“The possibility of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine - from the expansion of participants in ‘proxy forces’ used for military confrontation with Russia to a large-scale war in Europe - cannot be ruled out,” RIA cited him a saying.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-put
in-zelensky-motorcade-b2508436.html
"Macron has said, 'there are no more red lines, there are no more limits' in terms of supporting Ukraine (Le Monde). Then that means, Russia has no more red lines left for France," Medvedev wrote.
The Kremlin official then added, "In hostem omina licita," a Latin phrase that roughly translates as "everything is legal if it is done to an enemy."
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-warns-frace-russia-red-lines-18771
15
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Putin Ally Suggests Nuclear Strikes on 3 NATO Members
By Isabel van Brugen | Mar 08, 2024 at 4:49 AM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-nuclear-nato-countries-solovyov-187718
8
An ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested launching nuclear strikes on three members of the NATO military alliance—France, Germany and the United States.
State TV host Vladimir Solovyov, one of the most prominent figures in Kremlin-backed media, floated the idea on his show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov. The Daily Beast's Julia Davis shared an excerpt of the broadcast on Friday on X, formerly Twitter. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.
"Pundits on Vladimir Solovyov's show pontificated which Western cities should be the first to be targeted with nuclear strikes. Some of their top choices: Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Hamburg, Munich or Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the United States in general," wrote Davis.
The idea that a nuclear war could break out amid the conflict in Ukraine has been floated by numerous Russian officials, including Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and prime minister. Putin said in September 2022 that Russia was prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend its "territorial integrity", and the topic is regularly discussed on Russian state TV.
Kremlin propagandists have routinely warned of a looming world war and strikes by Russia on NATO territory over aid and weapons provided by the Joe Biden administration and members of the military alliance to Kyiv.
Solovyov began by railing against France, shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron said there are "no limits" to Paris' support for Kyiv.
"The goal of France is not just getting free resources from the territory of Russia, but the destruction of Russia. The final solution of the Russian question," he said. "Why do I think that we should carry out a strike against the West? Because I can see right through them! They say 'Russia can't tell us how to help Ukraine!' It's not for you to dictate how Russia can respond!"
Another guest on the show, Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at the Moscow State University, told Solovyov that the issue is "not whether or not to use nuclear weapons."
"The issue is against whom to use them. You often talk about France or Great Britain," said Sidorov.
Solovyov responded: "That's right, France, Germany, Poland, Great Britain."
"That's not the main issue," Sidorov repeated. "There is another country that presents a danger which stands behind all of the aforementioned ones."
"I mean the United States. Unlike other countries you mentioned, it can present an existential threat to Russia," he continued. "The issue is, either we start it and conduct the first strike, no one ever rejected an idea of a disarming strike."
Solovyov said he was undecided on where exactly Russia should attack with nuclear weapons.
"I just can't decide: Paris or Marseille? What should we destroy in Germany for their Taurus? Maybe Munich? Maybe we should have an audience vote, see which cities are they willing to spare," said Solovyov.
The Putin ally added: "The level of humanity's madness has reached its limits, the West won't stop at anything. We should harshly fight against it with all the forces and means at our disposal."
Last week, during Putin's annual State of the Nation address in Moscow, the Russian leader warned that his "strategic nuclear forces are in a state of full readiness."
"Russia won't let anyone interfere in its internal affairs," he warned.
His remarks came after Macron suggested that NATO members could send ground troops to Ukraine. Other NATO allies, including the U.S., ruled out doing so after Macron's suggestion.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https:
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Ukraine: Has the US Lost Yet Another Proxy War?
7 March 2024 by Larry Johnson 77 Comments
Short answer, YES!! Just like the proverbial chicken without a head, the United States is running around headless and incapable of navigating a way out of a confrontation with Russia. A confrontation that the United States cannot win. But, based on Biden’s speech tonight, the United States is going to double down on a losing hand. The Biden team apparently have decided they cannot afford a loss in Ukraine before the election so they are likely to green-light more risky terrorist attacks inside Russia, oblivious to the repeated warnings from Putin and his national security team that Russia will strike back.
You want to know how bad it is? Russian soldiers posted a video today begging Biden to send more M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine and promising to give him 10% of the bonuses they will earn for destroying those tanks. That, my friends, is world class trolling. The following video shows the Ukrainians launching a desperate retreat across an open field and suffering devastating casualties
MORE AT https://sonar21.com/ukraine-has-the-us-lost-yet-another-proxy-war/.
Saw the video, since taken down by YouTube (nah! No censorship there!)
You'll have to go to rumble for it now.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Putin Worries About The Russian Death-rate and Marks International Women's Day By Reminding Women What They're For
By Kate Nicholson | March 8, 2024
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/vladimir-putin-international-wo
mens-day-russia_uk_65ead686e4b026052a533c14
In November, Vladimir Putin suggested women should start having eight or more children to “preserve” the old traditions, saying increasing the population would be “our goal for the coming decades”. He just put out a message to mark International Women’s Day – but did not quite seem to understand the purpose of the annual occasion.
The Russian president’s video statement, released on Friday, urged women to focus on “the bearing of children.”
Putin’s message on Friday told women that their “greatest gift that nature has endowed you with [is] the bearing of children” – even more so than their “beauty, wisdom, and generosity” – according to the translation shared on the Kremlin’s official website.
He added: “Motherhood is a glorious mission for women.
“A difficult and critically important mission, but also a source of so much joy and happiness.
“Family remains the most important thing for any woman, no matter what career path she chooses or what professional heights she attains.”
He said raising children “is what matters most” for a woman, adding: “The family is the bond that has ensured continuity from generation to generation, and consideration and respect for women and motherhood are an integral part of our traditions.”
While the president did also acknowledge the women who are serving in the Ukraine war, this is not the first time Putin has called upon women to focus on childbirth.
Francis Scarr @francis_scarr
Putin’s message for his female compatriots on International Women’s Day:
Thank you very much if you’re fighting for me in Ukraine. The rest of you, get cracking! We need more babies!
Mar 8, 2024
https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1766016841783063018
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:I know who Larry Johnson is:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Saw the video, since taken down by YouTube (nah! No censorship there!)
Ukraine: Has the US Lost Yet Another Proxy War?
7 March 2024 by Larry Johnson 77 Comments
You'll have to go to rumble for it now.
Johnson is "best known for spreading a hoax... in 2008 that Michelle Obama had been videotaped using a slur against Caucasians". Johnson claimed that Republicans were in possession of the tape and it "is being held for the fall to drop at the appropriate time." No such tape exists. Johnson said that, according to one of his sources, the McCain campaign "intervened and requested the tape not be used." Johnson lied.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_C._Johnson#Michelle_Obama_hoax
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
SECOND is best known for posting lies and libel and making terroristic threats. He does this multiple times a day.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
So I've been trying to figure out what's next for Ukraine.
Putting the pieces together...
The CIA burned its own Ukraine program, via the NYT.
Vicki Nudelman, mother of Project Ukraine and The Greatest Counteroffensive, apparently got pushed out of the State Department, and the people promoted above her, and her replacement, are best known for being China hawks and pinching off unsuccessful projects respectively.
Miley, the Army General who had the most (funding) to gain from Project Ukraine, was replaced by an Air Force guy who probably has no interest whatsoever.
Biden* barely spoke about Ukraine as an ongoing project, only using the topic to attempt to bludgeon Trump and supporters.
Zaluzhny, Nudelman's acolyte, was booted out of Ukraine's military top job.
Meanwhile, before she left, Nudelman made dark threats about "nasty surprises" for Russia (signalling a shift from economic and industrial war to terrorism
Macron is still flogging his "French boots on the ground".
More than likely, Taurus missiles are already in Ukraine. Can probably say the same for ATACMS and F-16s.
So how much of this is just random verbal firing to cover an actual retreat?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Even if Russia's army isn't a particularly good one, it won't matter if Ukraine's defenses crumble, war expert warns
By Ella Sherman | Mar 8, 2024, 2:14 PM CST
https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-army-good-bad-wont-matter-if-u
kraine-defenses-crumble-2024-3
The Russian military isn't the formidable juggernaut it was once thought to be, but without strong defenses and key support, Ukraine is dangerously vulnerable to a force that can still inflict serious damage, an expert is warning.
Ukraine may still have more to lose as Russia continues advancing onward after capturing Avdiivka.
The Russian army has an ineffective command structure, relies on outdated Soviet-era systems, many of which it has pulled out of storage, and puts troops in the field who are woefully unprepared for combat, but it's also increasingly adaptive and has significant resources, though some material advantages are diminishing with the pace of its operations and losses.
"Erosion of Russia's equipment and ammunition advantages will matter very little if Ukraine is not resourced to defend itself in 2024," wrote Carnegie Endowment for International Peace senior fellow Dara Massicot in Foreign Affairs.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/time-running-out-ukraine
And, "it will not matter if Soviet-era tanks are less capable and survivable if Ukraine is not given the supplies to destroy them," she said. "It will not matter if foreign artillery shells have a higher 'dud rate' than domestic versions, if Russian forces can maintain a firepower advantage of around five to one, and Western production and delivery delays continue."
Ukraine is rapidly running out of resources, and if it cannot acquire the appropriate equipment and build strong defenses in time, then the Russians may easily plough through.
Russia's momentum following its months-long fight to capture Avdiivka is strong enough to help its military advance further, and since its costly victory there, it has already taken more land, including three nearby villages within a week.
"Russian forces have very few reasons not to continue their assaults," Massicot said. "By persisting, they maximize momentum before the ground thaws and mud returns, take advantage of understrength Ukrainian forces as they ration equipment, and engaging Ukrainian forces before they have time to fully dig in."
Massicot argued that if Ukraine cannot build a strong defense and get the support it needs, the problems with Russia's military won't matter. "It will not matter if Russian long-range precision-strike missile production has reached its zenith — or if, as Ukrainian officials say, Western sanctions are reducing the quality of Russian missiles," she wrote.
Ukraine has been waiting for additional US aid for months, as it still requires approval in Congress, and it has not built the kind of defenses around Avdiivka and some other areas of the front it needs.
Massicot, along with other experts, has been an advocate of the "hold, build, strike" strategy in which Ukraine would defend and dig in enough to "hold" off Russian forces and weaken them through heavy attrition. Ukraine could then "build" its military through training and manufacturing with the help of Western aid.
The "strike" element would see Ukraine hit Russian logistics and capabilities, sapping its strength. Ukraine could then continue its offensive operations. Western support is key though.
"Without these urgent steps, Ukraine's rationing of ammunition will continue through the spring and summer," Massicot wrote in her Foreign Affairs article. "Facing continual Russian attacks, undermanned units could become increasingly hollowed out and lose the ability to defend themselves. Unless immediate changes are made, this is the path that Ukraine and the West are on."
On a smaller scale, Ukraine has found alternatives. Using Crowdfunding to purchase
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Time is running out for Ukraine
By Dara Massicot | March 8, 2024
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/time-running-out-ukraine
Russia uses cash incentives and expensive social guarantees to attract volunteers. To meet quotas, authorities also use coercive methods such as conducting raids on factories, dormitories, and even restaurants looking for men to enlist, and pressuring immigrants and inmates. Russia is recruiting foreign fighters—and soon possibly foreign felons—into its ranks as well. Recruiting convicts may have already passed the point of diminishing returns. Before the war, the population of Russia’s prison system was stable at around 400,000 to 420,000. By 2024, that number had declined to 266,000, almost certainly as a result of recruiting by the Russian military and by private mercenary companies such as Wagner.
The remaining convicts may not be available to enlist, either, because Russia typically employs around 100,000 prisoners at any given time to help with persistent labor shortages across the country. Russian authorities estimate a shortfall of 4.8 million domestic workers. These shortages extend across multiple industries and a majority of Russian regions. Labor pools that were tapped to resolve past shortages—migrants, prisoners, students—are now needed for the war or for conscription. Unfortunately, Russia’s looming manpower challenges in 2025 and beyond will matter very little if the brute-force tactics of Russian troops exhaust and overwhelm Ukrainian units in 2024.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Czech Republic backtracks on finding cash to buy 800,000 shells for Ukraine
The country’s president and prime minister are putting forward very different figures on how much ammunition the country has procured.
By Laura Kayali | March 8, 2024, 4:08 pm CET
https://www.politico.eu/article/czech-republic-backtracks-on-finding-c
ash-to-buy-800000-shells-for-ukraine/
The Czech Republic has raised enough money to buy only 300,000 rounds of ammunition for Ukraine — not 800,000 as previously suggested by the country's president.
"We have managed to raise enough money to buy the first batch of 300,000 artillery shells. However, our goal is to deliver much more!" Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala posted on X, contradicting an earlier statement by President Petr Pavel.
On Thursday, Pavel told journalists that his country secured enough money to buy 800,000 artillery shells outside the EU for ammunition-starved Ukraine.
Prague is leading an initiative to purchase 500,000 155 mm and 300,000 122 mm caliber artillery shells for Kyiv.
Overall, 18 countries have agreed to finance the purchases within the Czech-led initiative. While some governments — including from Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands — have announced actual financial commitments, others, such as France and Germany, haven't provided exact figures.
Jacopo Barigazzi and Veronika Melkozerova contributed reporting.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian Weatherman Says Conditions 'Ideal' for Nuclear Strike on NATO
Updated Mar 09, 2024 at 5:24 PM EST
https://www.newsweek.com/russian-weatherman-says-conditions-ideal-nucl
ear-strike-nato-1877580
"Today, the weather is ideal for conducting nuclear strikes against NATO countries," Tishkovets said. "The air currents are directed in non-traditional ways, not from the west to the east, but the east to the west. The radioactive clouds will travel towards those countries that are sending arms and mercenaries to fight against our army."
He added: "The death of our guys shouldn't be the price of victory. We should move up to a higher level of escalation."
Andrey Sidorov, deputy dean of world politics at the Moscow State University, told Solovyov on his show that the issue is "not whether or not to use nuclear weapons." He said: "The issue is against whom to use them. You often talk about France or Great Britain."
Solovyov responded: "That's right, France, Germany, Poland, Great Britain."
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
On the frontline...
There are two more cities mentioned as being heavily fortfied: Ugladar "gift of coal") and IIRC Krasnahorivka.
Curiously, that isn't where Sirsky is pushing the most troops, or where the fighting is hottest.
At the moment, Ukraine is suffering the heaviest losses just west of Avdiivka (was an extremely well fortified city and a linchpin of Ukraine's defense line). The fighting is in three "prongs", each prong containing a village. Just beyond those villages is a north-south river, and beyond that is a north-south road that is important for Ukrainian logistics. So Russians pushing westward are backing Ukrainian troops against the river. If Russia crosses the river and takes the road, it will cripple Ukrainian logistics in the Avdiivka/Donetsk City area. It also aims at Krasnahorivka.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
US officials reportedly told CNN that Russia considered using “tactical or battlefield” nuclear weapons in Ukraine in 2022 – during the same time Russia conducted an intense information operation aimed at the West about Russia potentially using a nuclear weapon against Ukraine to deter Western support for Ukraine. CNN reported on March 9 that two senior Biden administration officials stated that the United States began “preparing rigorously” for a potential Russian “tactical or battlefield” nuclear strike in late 2022 after collecting intelligence indicating that Kremlin officials at various levels were discussing this possibility.[10]
The United States reportedly contacted multiple high-level Kremlin officials, discussed the issue with US allies, and asked China and India to discourage Russia. CNN reported that one US official assessed that Chinese and Indian public statements were a “helpful, persuasive factor” that showed Russia the costs of their potential decision. The sources reportedly stated that the United States believed that significant Russian territorial or personnel losses in Ukraine could have been a “potential trigger” for a Russian tactical nuclear strike as the Kremlin viewed areas of occupied Ukraine, such as Kherson City, as Russian territory and potentially viewed the loss of such territories as a direct threat to the Kremlin or the Russian state – one scenario in which Russia would contemplate using nuclear weapons.
CNN reported that US officials believed that the Kremlin may have tried to use claims that Ukraine intended to use a “dirty bomb,” which Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and other Kremlin officials were reportedly promoting in conversations with Western military and political officials at the time, as “cover” for a Russian tactical nuclear strike. Shoigu and other Kremlin officials routinely publicly promoted claims about a Ukrainian “dirty bomb” in October 2022 as part of an information designed to deter Western security assistance to Ukraine following Ukrainian forces’ rout of Russian forces in Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022.[11]
Ukrainian forces have transgressed Russia’s nuclear “red lines” several times over the course of the war with no Russian nuclear strike, indicating that many of Russia’s “red lines” are most likely information operations designed to deter Ukrainian and Western action to defeat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s liberation of Russian-occupied territories during counteroffensives in eastern and southern Ukraine in fall 2022 and subsequent Ukrainian strikes against occupied Ukraine violated Russia’s “red lines.”[12] Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO accession also violated Russia’s so-called red lines. ISW continues to assess that Russian nuclear use in Ukraine remains highly unlikely.[13]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-9-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The Russian military cemeteries laying bare the 'huge cost' of the Ukraine war
Satellite images show the price conscripts are paying, say experts, as one site sees graves quadrupling in two years
By Sean Rayment | 9 March 2024 • 5:46pm
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/09/russia-cemeteries-ex
panding-army-losses-ukraine/
Satellite pictures capturing the massive expansion of Russian military cemeteries prove the “huge cost” of the Ukraine war for Moscow’s army, according to experts.
The “startling” pictures show cemeteries linked to elite units such as the Guards Airborne Division, the Guards Motorised Division and the Wagner Mercenary group have all grown substantially in size since the invasion began in February 2022.
Although Russia does not provide a death toll for its soldiers, the pictures – provided by Maxar Technologies and obtained by The Telegraph and National Security News – add weight to Western estimates of significant losses.
Images of just one section of Moscow’s Tula cemetery, for example, show the numbers of graves have roughly quadrupled between October 2021 and April 2023.
The nearby Bogorodskoye cemetery has had a whole new section added during that time, apparently tripling its size.
Both are near Ryazan, in western Russia, where units of the 106th Guards Airborne Division are based, according to Maxar, a private US-based satellite company.
Troops from that division took part in the opening battles of the war in Ukraine and also later fought in operations in the Bakhmut area along with Wagner forces.
Western intelligence estimates suggest that as many as 20,000 Russian troops could have been killed in the fight for Bakhmut.
Col Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer and Nato planner, described the images as “startling”.
They show “the huge price Russian conscripts are paying”, he said.
“I am not surprised at the clear growth in cemeteries near bases as Russia is losing more than 900 troops a day at the moment for minimal territorial gains.
“The Russian losses in the battle for Avdiivka, where over 16,000 of their soldiers died are testament to that.”
Estimates of the number of Russian soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine vary enormously.
A recent study by Mediazona and Meduza, two independent Russian media outlets, suggested it was up to 88,000 as of the end of 2023.
They based their numbers on public obituaries and official inheritance records.
That estimate tallies with the British Ministry of Defence, which estimates that up to 70,000 have died.
The US thinks the figure could be as high as 120,000, while Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky last month suggested it was 180,000.
Russia does not supply official death tolls.
Around a quarter of Russian soldiers killed are in regular military units, another quarter are newly mobilised troops or volunteers, and the rest are convicts, part of private contractor groups or unknown, according to recent research by The Economist.
“The reality for the Russian people is that the expansion of the size of these cemeteries doesn’t fully reflect the true numbers of Russian dead,” said Col Ingram.
“Many bodies are left where they fell on the battlefield.
“The recovery and repatriation of Russian dead is not a priority as it keeps the true extent of the casualties away from public gaze and saves the Russian government paying compensation to families.
“This year will likely see casualties from both sides reach the one million in total mark.
“I should imagine that the cemeteries will either grow in size again or new ones will have to be developed.”
Other cemeteries shown in the images include Blyzhnie cemetery, near Feodosiya, Crimea, and Mikhaylovsk cemetery, near Stavropol, also in Crimea.
Both are associated with the 7th Guards Airborne Division, which has been involved in the Ukraine war since the start.
Troops from the unit took part in the southern Ukrainian offensive and the battles of Kherson and Mykolaiv that mont
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
A new book about Western journalists’ experience in Moscow during World War II sheds light on the problems of media manipulation and self-censorship in coverage of Russia today.
By Jonathan Steele | March 21, 2024 issue
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2024/03/21/the-party-line-the-red-hot
el-alan-philps/
There are two big stories that decision-makers around the world are following and that foreign journalists in Moscow would cover if they were there. One is the state of Russian public opinion. How strong or weak is ordinary Russians’ support for Putin’s war in Ukraine? Do Russians feel it is their president’s war, or is it, as Putin says, the West’s war on Russia? In other words, is it a war of choice, into which Putin blundered by misjudging the scale of Ukrainian resistance? Or is it a war of necessity, which Russia must not lose?
The second question is: How does decision-making work in the Kremlin? Is Putin an unpredictable autocrat like Stalin? Or does he have to balance the demands of powerful constituencies, like the resource-extracting oligarchs who control the economy, the security services, and the uniformed military who don’t want the ignominy of defeat? The mutiny led by the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, last summer briefly opened a window into the complexity of the pressures on Putin. Now it has shut again, and Western analysts remain divided over how to understand the situation.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
What the Russians didn't figure out in time
By Vazha Tavberidze | March 10, 2024 13:36 GMT
https://www.rferl.org/a/interview-us-colonel-crowther-nato-troops-ukra
ine/32855871.html
Crowther: I wrote a chapter in a book about Russian hybrid warfare. Putin has threatened to invade Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states. He threatened to invade Finland and Sweden if they agreed to join NATO. He threatened to invade Norway for hosting U.S. troops, Poland and Romania for hosting ballistic-missile-defense facilities, any European country hosting U.S. missiles, and has threatened or exercised the use of nuclear weapons on Denmark, Poland, the Baltic [states], the U.K., Sweden, Ukraine, the EU, NATO, and the United States. He has threatened to nuke all of those countries, [but] he hasn't done it once.
RFE/RL: You think he's bluffing? All the way?
Crowther: Nuclear weapons are the only thing keeping Vladimir Putin at the big-boys' table. This is the only thing that prevents him from being just a vassal of the Chinese. It's literally the only threat he has left. In January 2022, people talked about Russia having the second-best military in the world. Well, right now, it's been revealed that they're the second-best military in Ukraine, right?
He has no threats left. His basket is empty. He can't threaten, like he did with Georgia, a military intervention, because he's just got no military left. Honestly, it's really hard to threaten somebody with political warfare: "I'm going to do information operations in your country, irritate your people." That just doesn't [work] well, right? All he's got left is nukes to threaten with, and so he's very liberal with threatening the use of nuclear weapons. [But] I think if NATO forces hit Russian territory, he would use a nuclear device, absolutely.
RFE/RL: He was quite emphatically underlining in [his State of the Nation] address [on February 29] that there would be nuclear consequences if a move such as that Macron was hinting at occurred. Do you believe that's also another bluff on Putin's part?
Crowther: He threatened to nuke Sweden and Finland if they joined NATO.
RFE/RL: OK, so the biggest counterargument to [Macron's] idea that all those Western capitals have is that [deploying troops] would basically make them a party to the war. Would that not happen?
Crowther: This is the discussion about letting Ukraine into NATO, because this buys a piece of that war for NATO. If you read the rules about joining the European Union and NATO, it says they have to have good neighborly relations. So that is one of the things that's interpreted as a "finalized boundary."
The Russians didn't figure this out in time to keep, say, the Baltic states out, but they figured it out in time to keep Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia out. All you've got to do is occupy a square meter of your neighbor, and all of a sudden they are not eligible to join NATO or the European Union.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
A Ukrainian military official confirmed that Russian forces are conducting strikes in Ukraine with improved glide bombs. Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces Spokesperson Captain Dmytro Lykhovyi reported on March 10 that Russian forces struck Myrnohrad, Donetsk Oblast, with three universal interspecific glide munition (UMPB) D-30SN guided glide bombs that Ukrainian forces initially originally assessed were S-300 missiles.[1]
Lykhovyi stated that improved UMPB D-30SN guided glide bombs essentially convert Soviet-era FAB unguided gravity bombs to guided glide bombs. Russian forces had previously used unguided glide bombs as recently as January 2024.[2]
ISW recently observed Russian milbloggers claim that Russian forces began conducting strikes with FAB UMPB guided glide bombs, as opposed to using unguided glide bombs with unified planning and correction modules (UMPC), in unspecified areas in Ukraine.[3]
A Russian milblogger claimed that UMPB guided glide bombs have a guidance system that includes a noise-resistant GLONASS/GPS “Comet” signal receiver and folding wings similar to a Kh-101 cruise missile.[4]
Russian milbloggers claimed that Russian forces can launch UMPB guided glide bombs from aircraft and ground-based multiple rocket launch systems (MLRS) such as Tornado-S and Smerch MLRS.[5] A Russian outlet claimed that Russian aviation is currently launching UMPBs without jet engines, but that Russia anticipates employing UMPBs with jet engines in the future.[6] Russian milbloggers claimed that UMPB guided glide bombs with a jet engine and fuel tank, currently absent from aerial glide bombs with UMPC, will allow Russian aviation to drop guided glide bombs from a lower altitude “similar to air-to-surface cruise missiles” and increase the maximum strike range to 80-90 kilometers.[7] Russian milbloggers claimed that the increased range of UMPB guided glide bombs will allow Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) to increase the depth of strikes on Ukrainian positions without risk from Ukrainian air forces detecting or destroying Russian fixed-wing aircraft.[8] Russian milbloggers claimed that the Russian defense industrial base (DIB) is attempting to mass-produce UMPB guided glide bombs.[9] Russian forces will likely attempt to serialize production of UMPB guided glide bombs and increase their use across the frontline.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-10-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
'Germany and France are drawing two completely different conclusions from the war in Ukraine'
The differences between Paris and Berlin reflect the domestic political weaknesses of Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, but what remains at stake is both countries' self-image.
By Stefan Meister | March 10, 2024, 4:00 pm (Paris)
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/03/10/germany-and-franc
e-are-drawing-two-completely-different-conclusions-from-the-war-in-ukraine_6604289_23.html
From Germany's point of view, Macron, who is making more and more declarations, as he did at the last conference on Ukraine in Paris on February 26, is acting inopportunely and without consulting his partners. Conversely, there is less and less understanding in Paris of Germany's cold feet, and on such important issues as the future of the European Union, energy and defense, there are fundamental differences in position.
While Germany has become the second-largest supplier of arms to Ukraine after the United States, France remains a distant 14th. To criticize the German chancellor for always doing too little, too late in this conflict is therefore in no way in line with reality. On the other hand, Scholz's communication style, particularly on the issue of the Taurus missiles, has once again highlighted the chancellor's hesitations and delays, not to mention the recent leaks in the German army which led to a minor crisis at the top of the state.
The German government is making no secret of its growing irritation at Macron's desire to position himself as Europe's leader. One gets the impression that Germany doesn't want to take the reins, and that France is incapable of doing so.
In Berlin, Macron's statement that sending NATO troops to Ukraine could not be ruled out was the last straw. It undermined the German chancellor's approach of not provoking Russia and not allowing German or Western troops to be involved in the conflict. There are historical reasons for this caution: Germany has never before won a war against Russia, and the German public, increasingly weary of the conflict, tends to favor a diplomatic solution.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Eurocrats and the Euro political and military classes apparently woke to realize that America is trying to slide out of Project Ukraine.
More important than "self image" is the question "What are we going to DO about it?"
Russia already prepared for open war with NATO. (That's why they have an army over 1 million. Only a part is in Ukraine.)
NATO, OTOH, hasn't prepared for the inverse. So a lot of squawks and feathers are flying into the air.
Hungary and Slovakia don't want to be part of it. France and the Balts are making the loudest noises about troops in Ukraine. The rest of Europe is somewhere in between, with Italy and Germany being more skeptical while Poland and Czechia are considering the concept.
Taking Macron at his word, let's assume that he sticks together a "coalition of the willing" and does on of several things:
Place "fast reaction" troops in Moldova, ready to intervene militarily should Russia approach Odessa, OR
Place "non-combatant" (i.e unofficial "peacekeeping/ tripwire/ sacrificial) troops in cordons around Kiev and Odessa. OR
Support terrorist strikes against Russian civilian targets.
What then?
In the first case, combatants will simply be killed along with Ukrainian combatants and that will be the end of that. I don't see the USA jumping in to protect France etc from their own military folly. Probably not a viable option.
The second case is a little more problematic. IF the coalition is able to scare up enough people to act as "human shields", it would be politically difficult for Russia to bomb them and explain this to its allies and friends. Also, if Russia does bomb them, it might generate enough outrage among the American public to force a USA intervention. Not sure of the Russian response. Maybe militarily take every place but, and force a surrender? Needs more thought.
In the third case ... Well, if western nations are stupid enough to get involved in strikes on Russia, Russia has the option of sending a few (non nuclear) missiles their way. I don't see this as a viable option.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia already prepared for open war with NATO. (That's why they have an army over 1 million. Only a part is in Ukraine.)
SIGNYM
I can hardly wait. It'd be over in a few days.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia already prepared for open war with NATO. (That's why they have an army over 1 million. Only a part is in Ukraine.)
THUGR: I can hardly wait. It'd be over in a few days.
Of course. But not the way you think.
You were predicting that Ukraine was going to win, remember?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia already prepared for open war with NATO. (That's why they have an army over 1 million. Only a part is in Ukraine.)
THUGR: I can hardly wait. It'd be over in a few days.
Of course. But not the way you think.
You were predicting that Ukraine was going to win, remember?
SIGNYM
You say I was, no, I am saying Ukraine is going to win. And it would end the way I've said if Russia tangles with NATO. In a few days, maybe a week.
One more thing I'm sure of comrade. Talking facts with a liar is a fools errand.
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia already prepared for open war with NATO. (That's why they have an army over 1 million. Only a part is in Ukraine.)
THUGR: I can hardly wait. It'd be over in a few days.
SIGNY:
Of course. But not the way you think.
You were predicting that Ukraine was going to win, remember?
THUGR: You say I was, no, I am saying Ukraine is going to win. And it would end the way I've said if Russia tangles with NATO. In a few days, maybe a week.
One more thing I'm sure of comrade.
Talking facts with a liar is a fools errand.
Indeed.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Russia already prepared for open war with NATO. (That's why they have an army over 1 million. Only a part is in Ukraine.)
THUGR: I can hardly wait. It'd be over in a few days.
SIGNY:
Of course. But not the way you think.
You were predicting that Ukraine was going to win, remember?
THUGR: You say I was, no, I am saying Ukraine is going to win. And it would end the way I've said if Russia tangles with NATO. In a few days, maybe a week.
One more thing I'm sure of comrade.
Talking facts with a liar is a fools errand.
Indeed.
SIGNYM
Russia Advances in Ukraine With 'Staggering Magnitude' of Losses: Petraeus
Moscow's "incremental" victories in Ukraine are coming with "incredible" human losses, former CIA director and U.S. Army general David Petraeus has said, as Kyiv marks two years of full-scale war with no end in sight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears fully committed to his military effort in Ukraine, in which Kyiv and Western intelligence and defense agencies believe that Moscow has suffered some 300,000 to 400,000 casualties.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-advances-in-ukraine-with-s
taggering-magnitude-of-losses-petraeus/ar-BB1iXteU
Yup...
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
#Rootin4Putin
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
T
Ukraine Attacks Russian Energy Terminal (Drone Strike!) || Peter Zeihan
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Fuck Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Why Haven’t Russians Rebelled Against The War? Psychology Has Answers
By Alexander Archagov | March 11, 2024
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/03/11/why-havent-russians-rebelled
-against-the-war-psychology-has-answers-a84364
The onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sparked protests ranging from rallies and solitary pickets to mass letters and anti-war statements by celebrities — but even so, only a small percentage of Russians have shown open resistance to the war. The reasons behind this go beyond the fear of political repression. It is also the product of a deep-rooted instinct for psychological self-preservation.
According to OVD-Info, around 15,000 people have been detained at anti-war protests over the past two years. It is exceedingly difficult to use this number to gauge the full scale of Russia’s anti-war opposition. Moreover, sociologists like the Levada Center’s Lev Gudkov assert that 74% of Russians support Putin's decisions regarding the war in Ukraine, a figure that has hardly changed over the two years since the full-scale invasion began. At the same time, 57% support immediately ceasing military actions and entering negotiations, but only if Russia can keep the Ukrainian territories it has conquered.
Contemporary political science does not have a unanimous opinion on what type of political regime Russia falls under. However, many researchers agree that exercising political freedoms including freedom of speech is out of the question.
This is why sociologists like Grigory Yudin question the reliability of polling data, suggesting that most Russians either choose not to respond or to answer in a way that avoids trouble because they believe polls are conducted by the government. Yudin also claims that only about 5% of people respond to public opinion surveys. Figures claiming 74% support for Putin's decisions cannot be adequately interpreted as a result.
Fortunately, we have more than just quantitative data. The Public Sociology Laboratory used focus groups and conducted over 200 interviews in the spring of 2022 and another 90 that autumn to understand which groups of citizens support the war, which are against it, and the arguments used by each group.
As a result, sociologists divided the respondents into three groups: supporters of the war, opponents, and the undecided. Based on these data, it is possible to draft emotional-psychological portraits of each group, and understand their arguments and motives.
For war supporters, until the mobilization was announced, there was simply no war, and if there was no war, there would be nothing to resist. In this sense, the term "special military operation" is brilliantly deceitful. A military operation is not a war. It's something distant, special, that requires no particular attention. In the resulting narrative, Russia is not an aggressor. Rather, it is defending itself against attacks from the sinister “collective West." Ukraine is thus being held hostage by the evil forces resisting Putin’s heroism.
Interestingly, a significant portion of respondents, according to researchers, do not hold Putin responsible for the war in Ukraine. He is also perceived as a victim of circumstances, who was forced into this situation. At the same time, most of these individuals declare they are against the war. But since it seems inevitable, they feel they have to go along with it.
For virtually all respondents, the war came as a shock. To avoid shattering their existing worldview, they made the war a part of it. After all, perceiving your country as an aggressor, and its people as murderers, is unbearable. It is crucial to understand that the human psyche is remarkably adaptive and malleable, allowing survival under even the most extreme conditions.
The study also indicates that war supporters downplay the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine. Russian propaganda draws direct parallels between the "fight against Nazism in Ukraine" and the Great Patriotic War, framing anti-war protest as eith
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
CNN reported on March 11 that NATO intelligence estimates that Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions of unspecified caliber per month totaling about three million shells per year.[20] A senior European intelligence official reportedly told CNN the US and Europe can collectively produce only about 1.2 million shells of unspecified calibers per year for Ukraine. CNN stated that the US military set a goal to produce 100,000 shells per month by the end of 2025 and noted that this is less than half of Russia’s current monthly production, but US Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush stated on February 5 that this goal of 100,000 shells per month by 2025 only refers to 155mm artillery shells and does not include shells of other calibers that the US produces and that Ukrainian forces use.[21] NATO intelligence estimates of Russian artillery munition production cited by CNN likely include various calibers of munitions, not just 152mm shells that are the analogue to Western 155mm shells, and is likely not a direct comparison to the West’s goals for the production of 155mm shells.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-11-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
CNN reported on March 11 that NATO intelligence estimates that Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions of unspecified caliber per month totaling about three million shells per year.[20] A senior European intelligence official reportedly told CNN the US and Europe can collectively produce only about 1.2 million shells of unspecified calibers per year for Ukraine. CNN stated that the US military set a goal to produce 100,000 shells per month by the end of 2025 and noted that this is less than half of Russia’s current monthly production, but US Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush stated on February 5 that this goal of 100,000 shells per month by 2025 only refers to 155mm artillery shells and does not include shells of other calibers that the US produces and that Ukrainian forces use.[21] NATO intelligence estimates of Russian artillery munition production cited by CNN likely include various calibers of munitions, not just 152mm shells that are the analogue to Western 155mm shells, and is likely not a direct comparison to the West’s goals for the production of 155mm shells.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-11-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
No guns for citizens, dammit!
But plenty of guns for everyone else.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
T
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Oh, I'm sure they are Ted. I'm sure they are.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov discussed with guests on his evening television show which NATO countries Russian nuclear weapons should target, even proposing a viewer competition to decide the city that should get hit first. | Mar 12, 2024 at 10:40 AM EDT
"What should we destroy in Germany for their Taurus (missiles)?" prompting laughter from Sidorov, who said "Hamburg," adding that the small size of the Bavarian town he had studied in—Garmisch-Partenkirchen—meant it "was not worth a missile."
"Maybe we should have an audience vote," said Solovyov. "Which cities are they willing to spare."
In sharing the video, Jake Broe, a former U.S. nuclear and missile operations officer, posted on X: "Solovyov and all their military experts agree that Russia can nuke whoever they want in a first strike against any NATO country.
"Just another day on Kremlin State TV where they casually talk about killing hundreds of millions of people."
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-nato-nuclear-strikes-solovyov-
1878292
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The Kremlin continues to assert its right, contrary to international law, to enforce Russian federal law on officials of NATO members and former Soviet states for actions taken within the territory of their own countries where Russian courts have no jurisdiction, effectively denying the sovereignty of those states.
The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) placed the Estonian Minister of Internal Affairs, Lauri Laanemets, on its online Russian wanted list.[28] Kremlin newswire TASS reported on March 12 that Russian law enforcement agencies stated that Laanemets is wanted for the destruction and damage of Soviet war monuments.[29] The Russian MVD previously put other Baltic and Polish officials, including Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, on the wanted list for the same charges despite Russia’s lack of legal authority to prosecute foreign citizens for allegedly violating Russian laws in foreign states.[30] The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) also banned 347 citizens from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, including many high-ranking Baltic officials, from entering Russia for allegedly having “hostile” policies towards Russia, interfering in Russian internal affairs, persecuting Russian-speaking populations, demolishing Soviet monuments, “glorifying Nazism,” and supplying Ukraine with weapons.[31] The Russian MFA claimed that it could expand the list “at any time.”
Russia has previously used narratives about Russia’s right to protect its “compatriots abroad” (which includes Russian speakers), its alleged fight against neo-Nazism, and its dissatisfaction with the treatment of Soviet monuments in former Soviet states to justify its invasions of Ukraine and aggression against other countries, including NATO member Estonia, in the past.[32]
ISW continues to assess that Russia‘s attempted use of pseudo-legal mechanisms against Baltic officials are part of the Russian efforts to set informational conditions justifying possible Russian escalations against NATO states in the future.[33]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-12-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ukrainian shortages of ammunition and other war materiel resulting from delays in the provision of US military assistance may be making the current Ukrainian front line more fragile than the relatively slow Russian advances in various sectors would indicate.
Ukrainian prioritization of the sectors most threatened by intensive Russian offensive operations could create vulnerabilities elsewhere that Russian forces may be able to exploit to make sudden and surprising advances if Ukrainian supplies continue to dwindle. Russia’s retention of the theater-wide initiative increases the risks of such developments by letting the Russian military command choose to increase or decrease operations anywhere along the line almost at will.
German outlet Der Spiegel published interviews with unnamed Ukrainian commanders on March 12 who stated that almost all Ukrainian units and formations have to husband ammunition and materiel because of the overall ammunition shortage and that some Ukrainian units with limited ammunition and materiel can only hold their current positions if Russian forces do not “attack with full force.”[1]
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi warned that there is a threat of Russian units advancing deep into Ukrainian formations in unspecified areas of the frontline.[2]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-13-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Without Congressional Action, U.S. Army Will Miss Artillery Ammunition Target to Help Ukraine
By Jack Detsch | March 13, 2024
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/13/united-states-military-aid-ukrain
e-congress/
The U.S. Army will be forced to cut its artillery production target by more than a quarter if Congress fails to pass the national security supplemental that provides military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel as well as weapons to replenish U.S. stockpiles, military officials said on Tuesday.
“Bottom line is that short of the supplement that we will end up hitting a ceiling,” said Maj. Gen. Joe Hilbert, the Army’s director of force development, in a briefing on Tuesday. “Without the supplemental, we will cap out at about 72,000 [rounds] a month.”
A little more than $3 billion of the total $106 billion supplemental request bill—which has been debated over in Congress for nearly five months, although it passed in the Senate in mid-February—would go toward buying more 155 mm artillery shells and building new production facilities, including in California, Virginia, and Tennessee. General Dynamics is planning to open three artillery production lines in Mesquite, Texas, to provide for the growing demand.
In fighting the largest land war in Europe since World War II, Russia has expended between 12 to 17 million rounds of artillery ammunition since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago; the astronomical rates of fire have been used to dislodge entrenched defenses and spur advances on both sides.
The U.S. defense industrial base has more than doubled its output of 155 mm artillery ammunition since December 2022. U.S. companies are currently producing about 30,000 shells a month, and the Army hopes to increase that tally to 60,000 rounds per month by September 2024, and to 100,000 rounds per month by the end of 2025.
“We’ve got two issues in terms of defense budgets,” said Jeb Nadaner, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy. “One is the orders you place, in a year’s budget. But the other one is, can the industrial base produce it? And the base is really creaky.”
Artillery is not the only major weapons capability that the Pentagon is hoping to build up. The supplemental also includes plans to boost production for U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors to 650 per year, about a 15 percent increase. Ukraine operates a handful of the U.S.-built air defense systems. The supplemental also provides funding for a TNT factory that would provide explosives for artillery rounds and other weapons systems, Gabe Camarillo, the undersecretary of the Army, told reporters earlier in March. The bill also includes $3.4 billion in funding for the flagging U.S. submarine industry.
With no U.S. artillery ammunition arriving in Ukraine since December, Kyiv has tried to build more weapons of its own. The U.S. Army has already awarded contracts to American companies to help assemble and fabricate every piece of a 155 mm round—which, at about 6 inches at the base, includes energetic explosives such as TNT, primers, fuses, artillery charges, propellants to ignite the cannons, and the projectile itself. Ukrainian officials have said that they can fabricate projectiles, and multiple U.S. companies have agreed to produce explosives and propellants on Ukrainian soil, but Ukrainian officials say that Kyiv can’t build charges on its own.
Ukraine has received about 300 artillery weapons capable of firing 155 mm rounds since the start of the war—nearly half of them coming from the United States—ranging from U.S.-made M777 howitzer cannons to French Caesar guns and self-propelled German Panzerhaubitze.
But with rounds supplied by U.S. producers dwindling, European countries are turning to ad hoc solutions to keep Ukrainian guns firing. NATO has signed a $1.2 billion artillery ammunition contract to procure rounds on behalf of Belgium, Lithuania, and Spain. The European Union—which is months late on its target of producing 1 millio
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Vladimir Putin's leaked document reveals plan to 'spread chaos' across Europe
A leaked document appears to show Vladimir Putin's plan to 'spread chaos' across Europe after the war in Ukraine has finished - and it could plunge the continent into war
By John O'sullivan, Charlie Jones | 13:45 ET, MAR 13 2024
https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/vladimir-putins-leaked-document
-reveals-32347829
The letter, believed to be addressed to Putin, outlines a five-step plan to be implemented after the war in Ukraine and the 'fall of the Kyiv regime'. The letter states: "After the conclusion of the SMO [special military operation] in Ukraine and the fall of the Kyiv regime, Russia's confrontation with the West will not stop, but will only intensify."
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The West Is Still Oblivious to Russia's Information War
Paralyzed by free speech concerns, Western governments are loath to act.
By Ian Garner | March 9, 2024
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/09/russia-putin-disinformation-propa
ganda-hybrid-war/
A few weeks ago, a Russian autocrat addressed millions of Western citizens in a propaganda event that would have been unthinkable a generation ago—yet is so normal today as to be almost unremarkable. Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been viewed more than 120 million times on YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter. Despite the tedium of Putin’s two-hour-long lecture about an imaginary Russian and Ukrainian history, the streaming and promotion of the interview by Western platforms is only the latest successful foray in Russia’s information war against the West, which Moscow is showing every sign of winning. And in this war, the Kremlin is not just weaponizing social media, but relying on Westerners themselves to spread its messages far and wide.
A decade into Russia’s all-out information war, the social media companies seem to have forgotten their promises to act after the 2016 U.S. presidential election interference scandal, when Russian-sponsored posts reached 126 million Americans on Facebook alone. Policymakers not only seem oblivious to the full breadth and scope of Russia’s information war, but fears about stifling freedom of speech and contributing to political polarization have led them and the social media companies to largely refrain from any action to stop Russia’s ongoing campaign.
This inaction comes amid growing signs of Russian influence operations that have deeply penetrated Western politics and society. Dozens—if not hundreds or more—of Russian agents have been observed everywhere from English towns to Canadian universities. Many of these agents are low-level and appear to achieve little individually, but occasionally they penetrate institutions, companies, and governments. Meanwhile, a flood of money props up Moscow’s ambitions, including hundreds of millions of dollars the Kremlin is pouring into influencing elections, with some of that money covertly (and overtly) funneled to political parties and individual politicians. For many decades, Western societies have been deluged with every sort of influence imaginable.
While there have been some countermeasures since the start of Russia’s latest war—including the United States and European Union shutting off access to Russian media networks such as RT and Sputnik in early 2022—these small, ineffective steps are the equivalent of information war virtue signaling. They do not fundamentally change Western governments’ lack of any coherent approach to the many vectors of Russian disinformation and hybrid warfare. At the very moment when Kremlin narratives on social media are beginning to seriously undermine support for Ukraine, Western governments’ handle on the disinformation crisis seems to be getting weaker by the day.
For Putin’s Russia, “information-psychological warfare”—as a Russian military textbook calls it—is intended to “erode the morale and psychological spirit” of an enemy population. A central aspect of a wider war against the West, it is conducted online through relentless barrages of fake, real, and misrepresented news, through a cultivated network of witting and unwitting shills such as Carlson. The Kremlin’s messaging has an extraordinary reach: In the first year of the Ukraine war alone, posts by Kremlin-linked accounts were viewed at least 16 billion times by Westerners. Every one of those views is part of a full-spectrum attack against the West designed not just to undermine support for Ukraine, but to actively damage Western democratic systems.
Moscow launches its attacks using a playbook familiar to anyone who watched the disinformation campaigns linked to the 2014 invasion of Crimea and the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Bots, trolls, targeted ad campaigns, fake news organizations, and doppelganger accounts of real Wester
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian regional governments have reportedly increased economic incentives for Russian volunteers to sign contracts for military service. Russian opposition outlet Vazhnye Istorii reported on March 14 that Russian regional governments have increased one-time payments for signing a contract by a factor one and a half, or 225,000 rubles ($2,460), on average.[72] Vazhnye Istorii noted that Astrakhan and Nizhny Novgorod oblasts offer 500,000 rubles ($5,465) for signing a contract whereas Moscow Oblast offers 800,000 rubles ($8,744), suggesting that there is wide variance of economic incentives by Russian federal subject.[73]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-14-2024
In January 2023, the median salary was 43,500 rubles per month. In July 2023 it was 53,571 rubles per month. An immediate 800,000 rubles is a fat bonus just for signing a piece of paper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_federal_subjects_by_aver
age_wage
Russia's inflation rate is 7.4%, the highest of any major economy.
https://www.rateinflation.com/inflation-rate/russia-inflation-rate/
What happens when you sign one of those Russian Army contracts? We can't know when it is a Russian tricked into signing because Russians are secretive, but when an Indian signs for the money, it is no secret that the Russians tricked the Indians: "Indians die fighting for Russia"
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/14/as-indians-die-fighting-for-r
ussia-families-recount-their-pleas-for-help
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev posted a detailed call for the total elimination of the Ukrainian state and its absorption into the Russian Federation under what he euphemistically called a “peace formula.”[1] Medvedev’s demands are not novel but rather represent the Kremlin’s actual intentions for Ukraine — intentions that leave no room for negotiations for purposes other than setting the precise terms of Ukraine’s complete capitulation. Medvedev begins the “peace plan” by rhetorically stripping Ukraine of its sovereignty, referring to it as a “former” country and placing the name Ukraine in quotation marks. Medvedev laid out the seven points of his “peace formula,” which he sardonically described as “calm,” “realistic,” “humane,” and “soft.”[2] The seven points include: Ukraine’s recognition of its military defeat, complete and unconditional Ukrainian surrender, and full “demilitarization”; recognition by the entire international community of Ukraine’s “Nazi character” and the “denazification” of Ukraine’s government; a United Nations (UN) statement stripping Ukraine of its status as a sovereign state under international law, and a declaration that any successor states to Ukraine will be forbidden to join any military alliances without Russian consent; the resignation of all Ukrainian authorities and immediate provisional parliamentary elections; Ukrainian reparations to be paid to Russia; official recognition by the interim parliament to be elected following the resignation of Ukraine’s current government that all Ukrainian territory is part of Russia and the adoption of a “reunification” act bringing Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation; and finally the dissolution of this provisional parliament and UN acceptance of Ukraine’s “reunification” with Russia.[3]
The tone of Medvedev’s post is deliberately sardonic, and the calls he is making appear extreme, but every one of the seven points in Medvedev’s “peace formula” are real and central pieces of the Kremlin’s ideology and stated war aims and justifications — Medvedev just simplified and synthesized them into a single brutal Telegram post. The first two of the seven points call for the complete military defeat, disarmament, “demilitarization,” and “denazification” of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin identified the full “demilitarization” (stripping Ukraine of all its military and self-defense capabilities) and “denazification” (complete regime change) as Russia’s main goals in Ukraine when initially announcing the invasion on February 24, 2022. Putin and other Kremlin officials have frequently re-emphasized these goals in the subsequent two years of the war.[4] Medvedev’s calls for the resignation of all Ukrainian authorities and the creation of a new provisional government are calls for regime change simply made with more specificity about the methods. The demand that any successor state to Ukraine be forbidden to join military alliances without Russian permission is a call for Ukraine’s permanent neutrality, a demand that Putin and other Kremlin officials reiterate regularly.[5]
Putin established the principles that align the Kremlin’s objectives in Ukraine with Medvedev’s seven points in Putin’s 2021 essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” Putin claimed in that article that Ukrainians and Russians are historically one united people who were violently and unjustly separated by external nefarious forces.[6] Putin used this essay to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and claims over its own political, social, historical, linguistic, and cultural development — all suggestions that underpin Medvedev’s calls to dissolve Ukraine as a legal entity and fully absorb it into the Russian Federation. Putin and other Russian officials have long set informational conditions to define Ukraine as an integral and inseparable part of Russian territory and set Russia’s goal in Ukraine as “reuniting” Ukrainian territories with their supposed historic motherland.[7] Medvedev’s “peace formula” makes explicit and br
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Three Ukrainian Helicopters Landed Near The Front Line. A Russian Drone Was Watching—And Russian Artillery Was Ready.
The Russians’ kill-chain is improving.
By David Axe | Mar 13, 2024, 05:08pm EDT
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/03/13/three-ukrainian-helic
opters-landed-near-the-front-line-to-reload-a-russian-drone-was-watching-and-russian-artillery-was-ready/?sh=15270ad335e6
The strike extends a startling kill-streak for Russian forces in Ukraine. In just the last week or so, the Russians have knocked out their first Ukrainian High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, their first launchers for a Ukrainian Patriot air-defense battery and now a pair of helicopters.
It should be obvious by now that the Russians’ kill-chain — the networked drones and artillery that allow them to spot targets deep behind the front line and hit them before they move — is getting better, fast.
In theory, Russia widened its war on Ukraine 25 months ago with a speedy kill-chain based in part on the Strelets data network, which fuses targeting data from surveillance drones and other reconnaissance assets with the fire-control systems of artillery batteries.
In practice, Strelets and other Russian targeting networks rarely worked as designed—and mostly for human reasons. To put it simply, senior Russian commanders didn’t trust junior Russian commanders to open fire based on new — and fleeting — intelligence.
Leaders “are culturally averse to providing those who are executing orders with the context to exercise judgement,” Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds explained in a 2022 report for the Royal United Services Institute in London.
That began to change last year — and the reforms have accelerated this year. The Russians are deploying more and better surveillance drones passing better data along more robust networks to more front-line artillery batteries and attack-drone crews.
“Russia is using new technology to improve sensor-to-shooter links,” Blair Battersby, a British Army warrant officer, wrote for the U.S. Army’s training command. More to the point, Russian commanders seem to be giving front-line forces more leeway to act on their own.
Surveilling deeper, and shooting farther, faster and more accurately, Russian forces are mitigating one of their longstanding disadvantages—and blunting what once was a key Ukrainian advantage. The relative freedom of movement that Russia’s slow targeting afforded Ukrainian forces.
It should be painfully obvious to Ukrainian commanders that their forces no longer are safe within 50 miles of the front line—especially while out in the open during daytime.
They have two choices. Pull their own helicopters, rocket-launchers and air-defenses batteries farther from the front—or add protection. The Ukrainians could break the Russian kill-chain by jamming or shooting down the surveillance drones that usually are the first links in the chain.
But that means deploying more jammers and air-defense systems, both of which currently are in high demand and short supply.
Ukraine’s allies could help, of course. But its biggest ally, the United States, has sent just one package of military aid in the nearly three months since pro-Russia Republicans in the U.S. Congress began blocking fresh funding for Ukraine.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
March 15, 2024, at 6:26 a.m. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Jailed Russian human rights activist Oleg Orlov was asked to sign a form saying he was willing to fight in Ukraine despite the fact he is 70, his organisation said on Friday.
Orlov, a leader of the rights group Memorial that won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, was sentenced last month to 2-1/2 years in prison for "discrediting the armed forces" after he took part in anti-war demonstrations and published an article in which he said Russia had descended into fascism.
Orlov "inquired with a laugh if they weren't bothered about his age - this year he will be 71. They replied they weren't bothered about anything," Memorial said.
It said he was getting used to life in a small cell with 10 other people and that his fellow inmates were treating him with respect and addressing him as "batya", an affectionate word for father.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2024-03-15/russian-rights-g
roup-says-jailed-leader-70-was-asked-to-fight-in-ukraine-war
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
‘Unity is strength,’ insist Macron, Scholz and Tusk as trio tries to bury the hatchet over Ukraine strategy
There were hopes the Polish prime minister would help mediate between Paris and Berlin.
By Clea Caulcutt and Joshua Posaner | March 15, 2024 7:28 pm CET
https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-olaf-scholz-donald-tus
k-unity-ukraine-strategy/
BERLIN — French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk staged a show of unity in Berlin on Friday in an effort to bring a reprieve to weeks of bickering between France and Germany.
Scholz insisted “unity is strength” while Macron chimed in that the three leaders were “united and determined” in their support for Ukraine during statements to the press after talks at the chancellery. The leaders did not take questions.
Tensions between France and Germany over support for Ukraine have spilled into the open in recent days, and Friday’s talks were seen as an opportunity to patch things up. It was hoped that Tusk, who was joining a three-way summit for the first time since becoming premier, would help mediate between Scholz and Macron.
Ahead of the meeting, Tusk upped the stakes in tweeting that that what Ukraine needs is “less talk and more ammo,” an apparent rebuke of Macron. The French president has adopted increasingly hawkish rhetoric and doubled down on comments about the prospect of sending Western ground troops to Ukraine, but Paris itself has been under fire for talking tough while lagging behind in terms of actual military aid donated to Kyiv.
In Berlin, Macron adopted a more conciliatory tone towards his allies, saying that the three countries were committed to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” but “never to prompt an escalation.”
Scholz said the leaders agreed to buy shells for Ukraine on the global market, ramp up production and use windfall profits from frozen Russian assets to fund defense gear in the future — a shift from Berlin’s earlier stance, but it remains unclear how that would work in practice across the EU.
The commitments from Scholz could supercharge efforts to procure artillery shells for Ukraine in the midst of a supply crunch which has left Kyiv struggling to hold back Russia’s artillery bombardments.
A Czech scheme to finance the purchase of 800,000 artillery rounds on the global market has already gathered enough funding from a coalition of capitals to procure 300,000 shells and negotiate over a further 200,000. Portugal on Friday became the latest state to join with a €100 million contribution.
The German chancellor also said in Berlin that a new coalition of countries would team up to support Ukraine with long-range artillery capabilities within the so-called Ramstein format of countries which coordinates allied military aid to Ukraine.
Returning from a trip to Washington on Tuesday, Tusk said that “whatever happens” the leaders have a “responsibility for Europe” and “a strong Europe is important for Ukraine.”
Clea Caulcutt reported from Paris and Joshua Posaner from Berlin.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Seems like Macron, Scholz, and Tusk are burying the hatchets ... In each other's backs.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
And in real news...
Kiev's cross border drone attacks and attempted raids into Belgorod and Kursk over the past three days ended in disaster for Ukraine.
There is a pattern to their madness, tho. They launched drone attacks near the Zaparozhiy Nuclear Power Plant, a drone attack on a Russian power plant in Rostov, and one of the cross border raids was aimed at a Russian nuclear weapon storage facility, no less. Not that Kiev in trying to steal Russian nuclear materials. Kiev just wants to create a nuclear incident on Russian territory during Russian elections.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well... Kiev doesn't. Obama and NATO do.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Forever War Footing
Although Putin’s war planners envisaged a lightning attack that would take Kyiv in a matter of days, diplomats, insiders, observers and activists largely believe that Putin is now ready for a far longer conflict that could take years, if not decades.
“Putin appears to have dug in; he will not stop the war unless he is forced to do it,” said a senior western diplomat in Moscow. “We do not believe he is serious about any peace talks and it would be up to Ukraine anyway to decide them. From my rare meetings with Russian diplomats, I get a sense that they are feeling more self-assured than after the start of the war.”
Russia is devoting an estimated 7.5% of its GDP to military spending, the highest proportion since the cold war, and the government’s lavish spending has meant that factories making weapons, ammunition and military equipment are working double or triple-shift patterns, and welders collecting overtime can make as much as white-collar workers. A defence insider predicted that levels of spending would only continue to increase, he said, calling the change a “new permanent phase” that could last “many years”.
Publicly, Putin has played down the potential for an all-out war with the west, saying this week he did not believe that the United States was planning on nuclear war by modernising its strategic forces. But, he added, “If they want to, what is there to do? We are ready.”
And while Putin claimed he is “ready to negotiate” with Ukraine this week, he also dismissed “wishful thinking” and smeared Zelenskiy as a drug user. “I don’t want to say this, but I don’t trust anyone,” he told Kiselev of potential security guarantees from the west.
“I believe any signals that Putin might be sending about wanting peace are just a way for him to delay western weapon deliveries to Ukraine,” said Bondarev.
Even anti-war Russians regularly parrot views that the west bears some culpability for propping up the Ukrainian side, either by deterring possible moments to conclude a peace or prolonging a conflict that they believe Putin will never allow himself to lose.
“It’s clear that this war isn’t going to end with a victory for either of the sides,” said the former senior Russian official. “It won’t end. It will end as a frozen conflict. And that frozen conflict is going to continue for 100 years.”
Under constitutional changes he orchestrated in 2020, Putin could remain in power until 2036, when he will be 83 years old.
For young Russians, often referred to as Generation Putin, another decade looms under the increasingly authoritarian rule of the only president they have ever known.
“I am pessimistic about the long-term prospects of Russia,” said the businessman living under sanctions. “I would advise young people with a good education to leave and build a new future abroad. Russia is not going to run out of money … It will just be a stagnant, militaristic nation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/15/a-forever-war-more-repre
ssion-vladimir-putin-for-life-russias-bleak-post-election-outlook
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev questioned the sovereignty of Latvia, a NATO member state, and threatened Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics following Medvedev’s March 14 call for the total elimination of Ukraine and Ukraine's absorption into Russia under Medvedev's “peace formula.” Medvedev threatened Rinkevics’ life in a post on March 15 and claimed that Russia will hang Rinkevics alongside the current “Nazi” Ukrainian government for “wish[ing] for the death of Russia.”[33] Medvedev also claimed that Latvia is a ”non-existent country.” ISW previously noted that Medvedev’s sardonic and extreme March 14 ”peace formula” more explicitly outlines real and central elements of the Kremlin’s ideology and stated war aims and justifications.[34] Medvedev’s March 15 post is a similarly explicit presentation of the Kremlin’s ideological framing of the war in Ukraine as part of Russia’s longer-term conflict with the West and NATO that Putin has previously alluded to by claiming that Russia is fighting a geopolitical “Nazi” force gaining power in the West.[35] Medvedev’s threats against Rinkevics and the current Ukrainian government follow previous Kremlin efforts to assert its right, contrary to international law, to enforce Russian federal law on officials of NATO member and former Soviet states for actions taken within the territory of their own countries where Russian courts have no jurisdiction, effectively denying the sovereignty of those states.[36]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-15-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:In the real world, paranoid fantasies are most often a means of justifying preemptive atrocities. “If we don’t kill them now, they’ll kill us later” is a staple of right-wing nationalist rhetoric because it lets you blame the victims for what they would have made you do to them if you hadn’t done it first. Reactionaries see themselves as reacting, always, to the aggression of the left. This is why they tell apocalyptic stories about BLM mobs, Biden’s willful dereliction of duty in the matter of border security, or the zombie wasteland that progressives have made of San Francisco: to create a permission structure for all kinds of actions that would normally be off-limits. If they say ludicrous things, then, or describe a reality that has no bearing on the actual world we live in, their lurid fantasies nevertheless serve a purpose. As the hosts of the Know Your Enemy podcast like to ask about conservative thinkers, “What are they giving themselves permission to do?”
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
There is a pattern to their madness, tho. They launched drone attacks near the Zaparozhiy Nuclear Power Plant, a drone attack on a Russian power plant in Rostov, and one of the cross border raids was aimed at a Russian nuclear weapon storage facility, no less. Not that Kiev in trying to steal Russian nuclear materials. Kiev just wants to create a nuclear incident on Russian territory during Russian elections.
https://slate.com/culture/2024/03/dune-2-movies-frank-herbert-books-me
aning-differences.html
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Nobody gives one single shit about Ukraine.
Nobody wants to hear your sob stories about them when you're happy to leave your own border open to animals that rape and murder American citizens.
You, your party and the current administration are pure trash.
--------------------------------------------------
Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
There is a pattern to their madness, tho. They launched drone attacks near the Zaparozhiy Nuclear Power Plant, a drone attack on a Russian power plant in Rostov, and one of the cross border raids was aimed at a Russian nuclear weapon storage facility, no less. Not that Kiev in trying to steal Russian nuclear materials. Kiev just wants to create a nuclear incident on Russian territory during Russian elections.
SECOND: In the real world, paranoid fantasies are most often a means of justifying preemptive atrocities. “If we don’t kill them now, they’ll kill us later” is a staple ofright-wing nationalistSECOND'S rhetoric ....
Son, do you even READ your own posts???
Paranoid fantasies!
They are ever the staple of neocons and globalists.
Saddam WMD!
Terrorists!
Nuclear weapons!
Gassed his own people!
I mean, hell, nobody is going to say the quiet part out loud: We destroyed this nation because we wanted their oil/gas/gold/farmland/resources/strategic position that will allow us to attack something bigger.
I challenge you to find a single post of yours about Trump or Russia that isn't some version of The End of Democracy As We Know It or Russia Will Invade The Globe And Put Us All Under The Yoke Of Tyranny.
Why don't you obsess about something real for a change?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Europe Panics As Trump Rises From The Political Grave
Saturday, Mar 16, 2024 - 07:30 AM
Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, 'n Guns blog,
So last week was fun.
It started with the US Supreme Court’s 9-0 beatdown of using the 14th Amendment to punish political opponents.
Then the Wicked Witch of Kiev, Vic(Toria) “Cookies” Nuland was forced out at the State Department after decades of torturing the world with her psychopathy.
Then Donald Trump pretty much sent Nikki Haley back to her Waffle House outside of Greenville.
It ended with French President Emmanuel Macron making “believe me” eyes at the world that NATO was ready and willing to send troops to Ukraine. Whose troops? Clearly not French troops, which are only good at this point for “going on safari in northern Africa,” according to Col. Doug MacGregor.
Also, clearly not British ships, which can’t seem to get out of port. I think I’m noting a kind of tit for tat going on between Boeing airline failures and British naval ones… but I could just be conspiratorial like that.
*bong*
No, the answer has always been that it would be US troops in Europe fighting Europe’s war that everyone — The UK, Davos and their EU apparatchiks, and the US Neocons — thought would be a slam dunk to bleed Russia out.
And I’m sure that’s exactly the way they plotted it out in their Microsoft Project file over at Globalist Central.
That has obviously not taken place and it is Ukraine that is now in serious trouble. Truth be told, which has been in very short supply since the war started two years ago, Ukraine has always been in serious trouble.
And that has led, predictably, to the situation we see now. US support for Project Ukraine is coming to an end, if it hasn’t ended already. And the panic in Europe is palpable.
This was all very predictable if you accepted the framework that there was a split at the top of the US hierarchy. One faction committed to the Davos vision of the future which implied a compliant, even beaten, US and another that looked up from their quote screens and said, “Uh… no.”
The handwriting was on the wall about eight months ago when the big NATO Summit in Vilnius ended with the whimper by then UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace. Wallace was supposed to replace Jens Stoltenberg as NATO General Secretary and was shot down by no less than Joe Biden (JOAH Bii-Den!).
After that, there was no more real talk of Ukraine joining NATO. Zelenskyy went back to Kiev with the big sads after Biden gave him nothing as well. Then, in October, US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a coup by Matt Gaetz and a handful of GOP fiscal hardliners.
They immediately got new Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to tie all further foreign aid funding to as many spending cuts and dollars for border security as a slim majority in Congress would allow.
And since then Biden has been forced to look under the couches at the Pentagon for a few spare millions to send to Ukraine. He found 300 of them the other day As bad as things are, that the number starts with an ‘m’ rather than a ‘b’ has to be considered a victory.
The Senate tried to blackmail Johnson with their ridiculous $95 billion aid bill and Johnson just ‘boss moved’ Chuck Schumer by calling a two-week recess. Now, the best they can hope for a smaller bill with a lend/lease contingent with no money going to ‘humanitarian aid’ — a euphemism for pocket lining.
And despite his movement towards the Senate warhawks, Johnson is still using Ukraine aid as a means to push domestic funding reforms first. Every day these things are haggled over is another day which runs out the clock on Project Ukraine as Russian forces take towns and villages daily in the Western Donbass.
Again, not an ideal solution by any stretch of the imagination, but a Pyrrhic victory nonetheless.
But this is the state of play after last week and it’s far better than it was at the beginning of the year, since this money was already expected six months ago.
It’s put Europe in the position of finally
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has claimed that Romania is "not a nation" in an expletive-filled rant rejecting a call for Moscow to return the country's confiscated gold.
Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia and close ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin, blasted the "nonentities" and "weaklings" running Europe while dismissing any possibility of returning the gold in a social media post on Friday.
On Thursday, the European Parliament voted in favor of a non-binding resolution calling for Russia to return national treasures to Romania that Moscow has kept since World War I, including an assortment of jewels and 91.5 metric tons of gold.
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-ally-slams-weaklings-running-europe-exp
letive-filled-rant-1879906
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Since western media deliberately mangles what Russian officials say, this is what Medvedev posted on social media
Quote:
“I don’t even know how to respond to such impudence.
The EU has stolen $300 billion worth of Russian assets and is now demanding that Russia return gold to Romania. There is nothing to say except f*** off,”
Indeed.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Did the Western Media mangle this, Signmy?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Since western media deliberately mangles what Russian officials say, this is what Medvedev posted on social mediaQuote:
“I don’t even know how to respond to such impudence.
The EU has stolen $300 billion worth of Russian assets and is now demanding that Russia return gold to Romania. There is nothing to say except f*** off,”
Indeed.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev questioned the sovereignty of Latvia, a NATO member state, and threatened Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics following Medvedev’s March 14 call for the total elimination of Ukraine and Ukraine's absorption into Russia under Medvedev's “peace formula.” Medvedev threatened Rinkevics’ life in a post on March 15 and claimed that Russia will hang Rinkevics alongside the current “Nazi” Ukrainian government for “wish[ing] for the death of Russia.”[33] Medvedev also claimed that Latvia is a ”non-existent country.” ISW previously noted that Medvedev’s sardonic and extreme March 14 ”peace formula” more explicitly outlines real and central elements of the Kremlin’s ideology and stated war aims and justifications.[34] Medvedev’s March 15 post is a similarly explicit presentation of the Kremlin’s ideological framing of the war in Ukraine as part of Russia’s longer-term conflict with the West and NATO that Putin has previously alluded to by claiming that Russia is fighting a geopolitical “Nazi” force gaining power in the West.[35] Medvedev’s threats against Rinkevics and the current Ukrainian government follow previous Kremlin efforts to assert its right, contrary to international law, to enforce Russian federal law on officials of NATO member and former Soviet states for actions taken within the territory of their own countries where Russian courts have no jurisdiction, effectively denying the sovereignty of those states.[36]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-15-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I'd need to see the original quotes, in full, and in context.
Western media cherry picks words here or there, and then spins them into unrecognizability.
For example, YOUR previous post never quoted Medvedev's "fuck off" statement, which was THE direct response to Romania's demand for gold, but went bunny- trailing for anything Medvedev might have said about the EU or Romania, going back months to find a word here or there they could string together into a "statement"..
BTW the Kremlin's official response to the demand for gold was
1) We already returned most if it
2) Be happy that we did not demand reparations from WWII, when ROMANIA WAS ALLIED WITH HITLER.
3) Romania is just trying to shore up its failing economy, with its farmers on strike and all
*****
But you have no interest in truth. Your mission here is to spread lies. Keep up the good work discrediting yourself.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:I'd like to see the original quote, in full, and in context that convinced you I have no interest in truth. But then I'd like to see the same for your Kissinger quote.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'd need to see the original quotes, in full, and in context.
But you have no interest in truth. Your mission here is to spread lies. Keep up the good work discrediting yourself.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Signym, your Henry Kissinger quote can’t be trusted. I don't expect you to understand the ax-grinding difference between your quote and the original, but try a little harder.
Here is what Kissinger actually said:
Henry Kissinger said in November 1968, after Richard Nixon was elected U.S. president but before he took office: “Nixon should be told that it is probably an objective of Clifford to depose Thieu (South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu—ed.) before Nixon is inaugurated. Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem (who was assassinated), the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”
The quotation referred to America’s role in Vietnam. If America doesn’t stand by its friends and allies, the quotation explains, then it might ultimately be less dangerous to be America’s enemy.
Much more at
https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/it_may_be_dan
gerous_to_be_americas_enemy_but_to_be_americas_friend_is_fatal
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'd need to see the original quotes, in full, and in context.
But you have no interest in truth. Your mission here is to spread lies. Keep up the good work discrediting yourself.
SECOND: I'd like to see the original quote, in full, and in context that convinced you I have no interest in truth.
Son, you post about Medvedev is just the latest example of your disinformation campaign, and I already handed your ass to you on that one.
I've handed your ass to you on a lot of your posts.
You lie about yourself, REAVERFAN. You lie about everything.
And now you're demanding FURTHER proof of your lies?
That's just another one of your lies.
Nobody believes you anymore. Not even THUGR, and he's supposedly on "your side" and gullible as all hell.
Tear yourself away from the internet. Get out in the sun. Breathe fresh air. Do something you can be proud of. You'll feel a lot better about yourself.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Signym, you have been told that your Kissinger quote is false, but you persist in using it because of your ax-grinding, meaning you are working for an ulterior purpose or toward a selfish end.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Son, you post about Medvedev is just the latest example of your disinformation campaign, and I already handed your ass to you on that one.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/it_may_be_dan
gerous_to_be_americas_enemy_but_to_be_americas_friend_is_fatal
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Another one of your lies.
I already handed your ass to you on that one, too.
You really can't help yourself, can you???
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
And now for some real news.
According to Military Summary Channel, Kiev continues to launch drones and rockets at civilian centers in Moscow, and the Belgorod, Kursk, and Rostov regions, and specifically at the city of Belgorod. Most of the drones and rockets were shot down, but three landed in Belgorod city and a teenage girl was killed.
Obviously not a military action, but designed to terrorize the civilian population and interfere with this last day of voting in Russia.
Many of the missiles are being launched from Czech "Vampire" MLRS. Putin has said these attacks will not go unpunished.
I wonder what Russia will do, and who will get punished?
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Putin will punish Russians gullible enough to volunteer for his special military operation. The least cynical Russians are the most likely volunteers.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
And now for some real news.
Many of the missiles are being launched from Czech "Vampire" MLRS. Putin has said these attacks will not go unpunished.
I wonder what Russia will do, and who will get punished?
Ukraine war: Russian schoolbook urges teenagers to join the army
By Maria Korenyuk | March 13, 2024
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68550459
A new Russian school textbook has been produced that distorts the history of the war against Ukraine and encourages students to join the army.
It has been designed for a new subject entitled "Fundamentals of Security and Defence of the Motherland".
The lesson is compulsory for high school students aged 15 to 18 in Russia and occupied territories in Ukraine.
It will be taught once a week from September, replacing a lesson known as "Fundamentals of Safe Living".
Former soldiers are expected to teach the new subject and Russians with a degree in pedagogy - the method and practice of teaching - who return from the war are already being offered free retraining courses to become teachers.
The first textbook for the new subject, called The Russian Army in Defence of the Fatherland, has been produced by leading Russian education publisher Enlightenment. Among its authors are two senior figures who work for the defence ministry and Kremlin newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
Its 368 pages are filled with stories describing the "heroic achievements of Russian soldiers" from the 13th Century to the present day.
"Dear colleagues, we all understand the importance of presenting information to our students from the perspective of [Russia]," publishing representative Olga Plechova told an online introductory session for teachers in January, which the BBC watched.
"We cannot convey alternative viewpoints to the students. So this textbook will assist you in addressing children's questions and providing accurate coverage of certain events."
The book's authors praise Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and celebrate Soviet victories in the Great Patriotic War, as Russians refer to World War Two.
They also acclaim the role of the Russian military in seizing Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, which they term the "reunification of Crimea with Russia".
The schoolbook also devotes a section laced with distorted history to explain Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, using the Kremlin term "special military operation".
"When there was a coup d'état in Kyiv in 2014, the new government initiated a crackdown on everything Russian," the authors assert, before making a series of false claims.
"Russian books were burned, monuments were destroyed, Russian songs and the Russian language itself were banned... 'Russian blood' cocktails were served in restaurants."
"Cities in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, where dissent against such policies existed, were bombarded by Nazi shells and rockets."
The authors state "it was Ukraine and Nato who planned to start the war", bizarrely suggesting "a huge number of Ukrainian troops and armoured vehicles were concentrated at the borders".
In fact it was Russia that massed more than 100,000 troops both along its border with Ukraine and in Belarus, ostensibly for joint military exercises, only to launch its full invasion on 24 February 2022.
Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko sums up the textbook as "all misinformation and lies".
The book goes on to claim falsely that the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which was pounded for almost three months by Russian bombing, was destroyed during battles with "Nazis" and "foreign mercenaries".
"Russia fights with integrity," the authors insist. In several ex
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Russian authorities continue to militarize children in occupied Ukraine as part of efforts to Russify Ukrainian children and create a resource for Russia’s future force generation needs.
Ukrainian Luhansk Oblast Military Administration Head Artem Lysohor stated on March 17 that Russian authorities have approved the creation of the Luhansk Cadet Corps under the Russian Investigative Committee (Russia’s rough equivalent to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation), possibly before 2025.[61]
Lysohor stated that Luhansk Cadet Corps will teach Ukrainian children about pro-Russian concepts including their “debt” to the Russian “Motherland.” The Ukrainian Resistance Center stated on March 17 that Russian authorities have spent a decade developing a plan to introduce a Russian federal military training system for civilians in occupied Crimea and plan to introduce the same military training system in occupied Kherson and Zaporizhia oblasts.[62]
The Ukrainian Resistance Center stated the Kremlin ordered the establishment of centers for military-patriotic education and military training for civilians in each of Russia’s municipal entities and in occupied Ukraine and that occupation authorities are focusing on the expansion of the Young Cadets National Movement (Yunarmiya) as part of these efforts. The Ukrainian Resistance Center stated that occupation authorities plan to build an “Avangard” military-patriotic education center in occupied Sevastopol in 2025-2027 that will train about 5,000 Ukrainian children annually. The “Avangard” centers reportedly cooperate with the Russian Volunteer Society for Assistance to the Army, Aviation, and Navy of Russia (DOSAAF), and the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) will reportedly use the new “Avangard” center in Sevastopol to recruit personnel from occupied Crimea. Yevpatoria occupation administration head Elena Demidova announced in October 2023 that Russian occupation officials opened an “Avangard” center in the “Gagarin” children’s health camp in occupied Yevpatoria, Crimea, which reportedly accepted its first group of 100 ninth-through-eleventh grade students in early October 2023, to teach Ukrainian children basic Russian military training and organize “patriotic leisure activities.”[63]
Russian opposition outlet Verstka reported in August 2023 that the Russian Investigative Committee and its head, Alexander Bastrykin, were using toys, clothes, and school supplies to coerce Ukrainian children in orphanages in Russia to join the Russian cadet corps and that Bastrykin ordered some Russian cadets corps to prepare to receive Ukrainian children from occupied Ukraine as early as February 25, 2022.[64]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-17-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ukraine debates mobilising more men to fight Russia after two years of war
Russia seems ready to increase its attacking army after Vladimir Putin was re-elected, leaving Kyiv little choice but to do the same.
By John T Psaropoulos | 18 Mar 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/ukraine-debates-mobilising-mo
re-men-to-fight-russia-after-two-years-of-war
In a fight taking place far from the front lines, Ukrainian lawmakers are debating a bill that could make or break their country’s fortunes in this war.
The bill would raise up to half a million new soldiers, increasing Ukraine’s standing army by half.
The increase is 10 times as many new men as the 12 brigades Ukraine raised for its 2023 counteroffensive, and it could enable the country to finally break Russia’s stranglehold on its southern regions, cutting the front in half and forcing the Kremlin into a negotiation on Kyiv’s terms.
Ukraine may have little choice because it is currently fighting a war of attrition experts say favours the side with greater manpower resources – Russia. It also seems likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin would raise more troops after his re-election.
“Putin is… planning to mobilise more men, once the election is over,” Tim Less, a lecturer at Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics, told Al Jazeera.
“Among other things, he has banned the exit of fighting-age men from the country and banned the antiwar candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, from standing in the election, for fear he may generate opposition to the war effort,” said Less. “Putin appears to have concluded that further mobilisation is essential to press home Russia’s advantage on the battlefield and that this is what he will do.”
With US aid stalled – perhaps permanently – by congressional Republicans, Putin may have concluded that 2024 was his year to win the war and that forces the moment to its crisis for Ukraine.
“It’s been two years of hell for us,” said Inna Sovsun, who sits on the Security, Defence and Intelligence Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, where the bill is being discussed.
Her partner has been fighting on the front lines since Russia’s invasion and she supports raising more troops, but only if there’s an end in sight for those who’ve already served.
“There are people who are leading normal lives. We would like to know there is a point in the future when he will be demobilised and someone else will take his place. This is being hotly debated and there is no answer right now,” she told Al Jazeera.
Ukraine mobilised men over the age of 27 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country on February 24, 2022. But only a third of its million men and women in uniform are on active combat duty, facing what Kyiv estimates are 462,000 Russian soldiers, and Russia’s Putin claims are 617,000.
The rest of Ukraine’s personnel are in supporting roles, including tens of thousands posted to the currently quiet northern border with Belarus, from where Moscow’s original main thrust towards Kyiv came, lest it should be repeated.
A more efficient rotation of those in uniform might fill some combat roles, but not enough, says the military.
There are also some tens of thousands to be gleaned from closing loopholes to the draft.
After Russia’s invasion, young men rushed to enroll in PhD programmes at private colleges and there was an uptick in marriages to women with minor disabilities. The committee is closing these and other exemptions.
But that is where the low-hanging fruit ends and the difficult decisions begin.
Last December, after the counteroffensive failed to execute his strategy, then-Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi put the matter on the table, demanding half a million more soldiers.
“This is a significant number,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after meeting his top generals, apparently unconvinced that the economy could spare them, or allies could train and equip them.
“I told them I need more arguments to support this direction, because this is a matter
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
A Suspicious Pattern Alarming the Ukrainian Military
Story by Graeme Wood | March 17, 2024
Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Kateryna Chernohorenko, sent me a statement noting that U.S. satellite companies have supported Ukraine. But she said that her ministry’s experts suspect that Russia “purchases satellite imagery through third-party companies” that do business with Western satellite-imagery companies, and that these images “could be used in armed aggression against Ukraine.”
Ordering imagery from these companies is simpler than you might think. Stale, blurry images are free on Google Maps. Fresh, crisp imagery of something you may or may not wish to blow to smithereens costs a little more. A site called https://spymesat.com/ tracks various companies’ satellites and will give a cost estimate for a brand-new image taken the next time one of them passes over the location you choose. In the business, ordering a satellite to take an image is called “tasking.” The companies offer astonishingly fast turnaround times, at costs in the low thousands of dollars. Faster turnaround and higher resolution raise the cost. I zoomed in on the apartment where I stayed in Odesa early in the war, and the site told me that a U.S. company would let me task its satellite for $1,200 when it passed in just a few hours. If I went there now and painted BOMB ME in huge letters on the roof, the paint would still be wet for its close-up.
For even less, one can order archival imagery from Ukraine—some of it very recent, and of militarily significant areas. The city of Zaporizhzhia is about an hour’s drive from the front line. An Atlantic staffer requested a recent satellite photo of that city from a reseller that works with Planet, a San Francisco-based commercial satellite company. The staffer gave the reseller a credit-card number and a name, and received a high-resolution image just minutes later.
An executive of a firm that analyzes satellite imagery told me that the firm noticed a pattern dating back to 2022, by cross-referencing tasked images against actual attacks. (The executive requested anonymity because the firm does business with the same satellite companies whose images it reviewed, and does not want its relationships to sour over bad publicity.) The executive identified more than 350 Russian missile strikes in the first year of the war, all deep within Ukrainian territory. I showed a selection of cases to Jack O’Connor, who teaches geospatial intelligence at Johns Hopkins University, and he wrote back, “The data suggests that the Russians are doing what the Ukrainians suspect.” He was, however, cautious about what one can infer with certainty, no matter what patterns one sees. “There is no direct causal relation that can be proven from this data.”
Much more at https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-suspicious-pattern-alarming-the
-ukrainian-military/ar-BB1k5906
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) claimed that 99.8 percent of the personnel in the Russian armed forces voted in the presidential election of whom 97.27 percent voted for Putin.[15] Putin claimed that he did not expect such high election results in occupied Ukraine and that the results demonstrate that people in occupied Ukraine are “grateful for Russian protection” and, therefore, he said that Russia will do everything to ensure the “protection” of occupied Ukraine.[16] Putin is likely continuing efforts to set informational conditions to justify a protracted conflict and long-term occupation of Ukraine under the guise of “protecting” civilians in occupied Ukraine who are only in danger because of the Russian invasion.[17]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-18-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Putin’s Friends Celebrate Re-Election With Photos of Mass Hanging
YES, THAT’S A THREAT
Images of Russian “traitors” being executed were shown on state TV in a chilling warning about the next six years of the “Supreme Commander.”
By Julia Davis | Mar. 18, 2024 3:16PM EDT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-friends-celebrate-re-election-wit
h-photos-of-mass-hanging
“Everyone understands, Russia is currently in a certain historic stage. It would be incorrect, not to say criminal, not to support the Supreme Commander.”
Referring to the enemies of Putin’s regime as “Vlasovites,” Bulatov said that a picture is worth a 1,000 words and put up a photograph of what happened to Andrey Vlasov, a controversial figure in Russian history. Showcasing a graphic picture of a mass hanging, Bulatov said, “Here they are! This is how they ended up. There is no other way. Enough with half-measures. Traitors have to be dealt with in a radical way.” Serukhanov chimed in, “This is it, this is the only way.”
It should be noted that Russian propaganda uses broad strokes in describing not only armed resistance, but Putin’s opposition leaders as “Vlasovites.” For years, Putin’s top propagandists referred to Alexei Navalny as a “traitor” and argued that he deserved to die. The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in prison, just in time for Putin’s big show.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Putin’s Friends Celebrate Re-Election With Photos of Mass Hanging
YES, THAT’S A THREAT
Images of Russian “traitors” being executed were shown on state TV in a chilling warning about the next six years of the “Supreme Commander.”
By Julia Davis | Mar. 18, 2024 3:16PM EDT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/putins-friends-celebrate-re-election-wit
h-photos-of-mass-hanging
“Everyone understands, Russia is currently in a certain historic stage. It would be incorrect, not to say criminal, not to support the Supreme Commander.”
Referring to the enemies of Putin’s regime as “Vlasovites,” Bulatov said that a picture is worth a 1,000 words and put up a photograph of what happened to Andrey Vlasov, a controversial figure in Russian history. Showcasing a graphic picture of a mass hanging, Bulatov said, “Here they are! This is how they ended up. There is no other way. Enough with half-measures. Traitors have to be dealt with in a radical way.” Serukhanov chimed in, “This is it, this is the only way.”
It should be noted that Russian propaganda uses broad strokes in describing not only armed resistance, but Putin’s opposition leaders as “Vlasovites.” For years, Putin’s top propagandists referred to Alexei Navalny as a “traitor” and argued that he deserved to die. The main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, died suddenly in prison, just in time for Putin’s big show.
Huh. And yet, no picture of "the" picture. So for now, this is more of a "somebody said that somebody said" story.
As usual, the western press and SECOND thrive on snippets, misquotes, and rewrites [lies].
What Putin said was that altho there is no death penalty in Russia, if Russian citizens are found fighting for Ukraine they will be dealt with as traitors, including on the battlefield.
THAT'S a threat
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Loving America is like loving an addicted spouse - SIGNYM
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ukraine’s European partners continue efforts to stand up significant initiatives to provide military support to Ukraine. Bloomberg reported on March 19 that the European Union (EU) has prepared draft legislation that would allow the transfer of profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine as early as July 2024.[27] EU High Commissioner Josep Borrell stated that the EU should transfer 90 percent of Russian frozen asset revenue to an EU-run fund to finance security assistance for Ukraine and that he will submit a formal proposal for this mechanism to EU member states on March 20.[28] Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for National Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz additionally announced on March 18 that Germany and Poland are creating an “armored vehicle coalition” to support Ukraine and noted that Sweden, the UK, and Italy have already declared their willingness to participate in the coalition.[29]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-march-19-2024
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:The Vlasov Army: Nazi Sympathizers Or WWII Freedom Fighters?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Huh. And yet, no picture of "the" picture. So for now, this is more of a "somebody said that somebody said" story.
As usual, the western press and SECOND thrive on snippets, misquotes, and rewrites [lies].
What Putin said was that altho there is no death penalty in Russia, if Russian citizens are found fighting for Ukraine they will be dealt with as traitors, including on the battlefield.
THAT'S a threat
https://www.rferl.org/a/the-vlasov-army-nazi-sympathizers-or-ww-ii-fre
edom-fighters-/30313961.html
"It's absolutely clear that without the Vlasov army fighters the Prague [fighters] would have suffered colossal human losses," Aleksandrov said. "The number of victims was still high, some 1,500 victims, but it could have been worse, much worse."
After the fighting ceased, Vlasov was among a group of ROA fighters to fall into the hands of U.S. soldiers. As fate had it, the Americans later handed him and other ROA members over to the Soviets in a prisoner exchange.
Vlasov and other ROA leaders were executed in Moscow in August 1946 after a closed-door trial.
Beating The Red Army To Prague
On May 8, when an official "capitulation protocol" between the Czech National Council and the Nazi leadership entered into force, Vlasovites were in Prague. Absent were Red Army units which entered the Czech capital a day later.
"The Red Army appear in Prague only once the war had ended," Aleksandrov stated in the 2015 interview. "De jure and de facto."
That chronology conflicts with the long-standing Soviet, and Russian, narrative of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
"The question of the Vlasovites suggests the whole Russian myth is based on a lie," Jan Sir, a professor in the Russian and Eastern European department of Prague's Charles University, told the Czech news site Lidovky.cz.
Aleksandrov faced harsh criticism in 2016 over his doctoral thesis on Vlasov. War veterans and some academics have called for his prosecution under a Russian law forbidding the propagation of "wars of aggression."
One Russia history professor who also served in the war said in 2016 that Aleksandrov's thesis "destroys the memory of Russia's greatest victory."
Whose History?
The competing history of the Vlasov army is not the only chapter of World War II that Russia has taken issue with.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
There Was No Russian Election
Vladimir Putin staged an elaborate charade—so why did some Western media outlets play along?
By Anne Applebaum | MARCH 20, 2024, 6 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/russias-non-election
/677808/
There was no election in Russia last weekend. There was no campaign. There were no debates, which was unsurprising, because no issues could be debated. Above all, there were no real candidates, bar one: the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, the man who has just started his fifth, unconstitutional term in office.
Russians did line up at polling stations, but these were not actually polling stations. They were props in an elaborate piece of political theater, a months-long exercise in the projection of power and brutality. While that exercise unfolded, Putin’s only significant political opponent, Alexei Navalny, died under mysterious circumstances in a prison north of the Arctic Circle. Two Russian presidential candidates collected the requisite number of signatures to stand, both said they opposed the war in Ukraine, and both were removed from the ballot. Three practically unknown people were allowed to remain on the ballot, but they did not criticize Putin and did not oppose him in any way. One of them declared that he hoped Putin would win. In Russian-occupied Ukraine, men in balaclavas forced people to vote at gunpoint.
Some Western media nevertheless covered this orchestrated drama as if it really were an election. Reporters interviewed voters, cited “exit polls,” even commented on the “results,” as if these things mean anything in a country whose leadership lies openly about everything: economic statistics, war casualties, Russian history. Reuters ran a headline declaring Putin had won “in a landslide.” The earnest coverage was exactly what Putin hoped he would get. He knows, after all, that he is an illegitimate leader, and he knows that he abandoned the Russian constitution. This non-election was his messaging exercise, designed to show Russians, and the rest of the world, that he intends to stay in power anyway, illegally. He especially needs the foreign press, which is widely and frequently quoted inside Russia, to help him demoralize his internal opposition and frighten external opponents. Foreign recognition gives him the legitimacy he craves.
This grotesque charade was in addition a form of distraction, because Putin also knows that his war in Ukraine is an ongoing disaster for Russia. The number of dead, wounded, and missing Russian soldiers now exceeds 315,000. The Ukrainian military claims that there were nearly 6,000 Russian casualties just last week. The Russian navy has lost several ships to Ukrainian drones, and has now retreated from the western part of the Black Sea. The Russian air force has lost several planes to Ukrainian missiles just in the past month, and the army, hundreds of tanks. Ukrainian sabotage and drone strikes have now hit multiple Russian oil refineries, cutting production by as much as 10 percent. Putin needs to deflect Russian attention, and our attention, away from all of these fiascos. Once again, foreign press coverage helps, especially in the United States, where Russian money, Russian propaganda, and Russian influence in the congressional Republican Party have successfully held up military aid for Ukraine for more than half a year. Putin isn’t winning in the Black Sea, but he can win in Washington, if only he can inject a bit more hopelessness and helplessness into the American debate.
Finally, Putin has a more universal goal: By holding this non-election and calling it an election, the Russian regime mocks democracy itself. Putin’s critics want political alternatives, not just a different leader. They use the language of democracy and rights. Navalny once spoke of a “virus of freedom” that spreads rapidly and cannot be snuffed out. Putin needs to halt this virus, undermine this language, kill off any hope that Russia could ever be a different kind of place.
He also needs to eradicat
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
‘Record falsification’: Kremlin critics decry vote won by Russia’s Putin
Although Putin’s popularity among most Russians is not in doubt, observers and analysts say the recent election was far from free and fair.
By Mansur Mirovalev | 20 Mar 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/20/record-falsification-kremlin-
critics-decry-vote-won-by-russias-putin
Mykola sarcastically wonders whether he “voted” correctly.
The Ukrainian police officer left his home village near the southeastern city of Mariupol on February 25, 2022, the day after Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
More than two years later, his elderly parents, who opted to stay under Russian occupation, told him they saw his name in the list of voters at the March 15-17 presidential vote.
In his absence, election officials faked his “vote” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mykola alleged, echoing reports of widespread vote rigging documented by rare and heavily persecuted independent monitors in the Russia-occupied parts of four Ukrainian regions – and in Russia proper.
Mykolay’s parents also told him about how masked, heavily armed servicemen plodded the streets accompanying election officials who urged residents to fill in early ballots.
“Government employees have been forced to vote, required to provide photo reports” showing their ballots with Putin’s name ticked off, Mykola, who withheld his last name and his village’s location to protect his parents, told Al Jazeera.
Vote rigging in the Russia-occupied parts of four Ukrainian regions harks back to the decades of similar practices documented in Russia that included coercion to vote, ballot staffing, and “carousels” – when groups of people are bussed to dozens of polling stations.
This reporter, accompanied by an independent election monitor in a northern Moscow suburb during the 2012 presidential vote, witnessed the arrival of several busloads of men, some of them visibly drunk, who loudly said they “only vote for Putin”.
Hours later, the same men arrived at a different polling station, this reporter observed.
An election official at the time said the “usual” winners at previous elections were either Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov or flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
However, the polling station always reported Putin’s victory, the official – a tired teacher who finished counting the votes at 4am – said on condition of anonymity.
‘Record falsification’
Some 110 million Russians were eligible to vote this month, and 87.1 million cast their ballots at polling stations or used an electronic voting system, Russia’s chief election official Ella Pamfilova said.
Almost 65 million of them voted for Putin, she said.
But at least 31.6 million votes for Putin were falsified, claimed Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper that has for decades been among the most trusted media outlets in Russia.
Novaya Gazeta’s analysts used a mathematical model developed by election monitor Sergey Shpilkin that uses a discrepancy between voter turnout and votes for each candidate.
If turnout at an individual polling station suddenly increases, the voting goes up sharply only for one candidate against statistical odds – namely, Putin, according to the model.
This year’s vote beat all previous records of vote rigging, Novaya Gazeta claimed.
“This is a record amount of vote falsification at a presidential vote in Russia,” it reported.
Golos, Russia’s last independent election monitor whose staffers and volunteers have faced fines and arrests, said the vote was the least constitutional since Putin came to power in 2000.
“We’ve never seen a presidential campaign that was so far from constitutional standards,” Golos said in a statement.
The key word of this year’s presidential campaign was “imitation,” it said.
The Kremlin imitated the freedom of choice and campaigning with the participation of opposition candidates who were only figureheads from pro-Kremlin political parties, it said.
The Kremlin also imitated transparency and openness
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
