With the amount of resources western powers have, how has no one been able to poison Putin? Surely it shouldn't be a question of morals. One life of a crazy man vs thousands of innocents?
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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Same way we never poisoned Castro. Difficult to get someone / turn someone in that tight circle at the upper echelon of staff.
Billions are spent on military aid. Everyone has a price. Surely $300 million to a close member isn't that big of a deal. Also, the precision in some of the modern weaponry out there is insane. Things you can fit in a pocket to carry out the task. I feel it can't be an issue logistically.
I agree, we should be able to undertake something that has massive plausible deniability. Until then we have to hope for a successful von Stauffenberg.
Look at how many times Putin himself failed to poison his opponents with undetectable military-grade chemical weapons.
And you do realize that it’s $300 mil (which isn’t an overwhelmingly lot for his close circle) for a suicide mission as, if caught, this person never gets out of there alive.
I'm pretty sure a thread like this, considering both the length and the topic, self selects for people with authoritarian tendencies and people fascinated with wars. I think if we were to look at the forum more broadly it would be different.
Don't know, I just feel it's an easier target than the current stalemate of innocent people just dying but what do I know.
What’s your theory for why it hasn’t happened?
Wasn’t your previous post in this thread about a Russian acquaintance being refused service in a London restaurant (something I have not heard from any Russian acquaintances in Western Europe)? Given the overwhelmingly black and white nature of this conflict, it’s somewhat strange you seem more focused on “victims” on the invader’s side.
Fear. Socially not acceptable. If it leaks that they did it, it will be chaos and legitimize Putin.
If you think that Putin is alone in this, then you are mistaken. He wouldn't be able to govern if he was alone. He has a lot of followers and true believers. For 20+ years, he is the master of the Russian state and the Russian mafia. I am sure that during that time he has handpicked all the people around him, and he has tried their loyalty multiple times. All people around him are rich because of their relationship with Putin, and there is as much blood on their hands as is on Putin's and some of these people are much worse and much more bloodthirsty than Putin. And if Putin dies, all those around him will lose a lot, too.
So, it is not just a matter of someone offering money to kill Putin. As it wasn't for Hitler or Stalin. It is just not easy to do it, no matter how much money you offer. These people have a lot of loyal security around them.
I have the feeling that even with all the news that the UA army is detroying this and that and nothing from the RA, and all the positive and no negative, when i see maps and comments i only see gains from the RA and barely gains for the UA besides the botch attempt in kiyv.
What is the real developement of the war? Is RA winning? The UA? Or there is stalling positions?
What is the real developement of the war? Is RA winning? The UA? Or there is stalling positions?
Some info about US artillery:
So it's already in action, more is coming, and the training is ongoing. Will get ugly for Russia.
So it's already in action, more is coming, and the training is ongoing. Will get ugly for Russia.
I guess the frontlines are simply very slow-moving. The Ukrainians might trade land here and there to stretch the Russians and then start a counter-attack (defend in depth).
Also, Ukraine doesn't seem to have massive offensive capabilities, so they're still waging a defensive style of war out of necessity.
That's the impression I currently have.
The conflict itself is black and white, no doubt about it, the russians are the bad guys and ukranians are the victims. I just feel more compelled to comment about something a few dozen people before me haven't commented on yet, because I'd basically be saying the same thing.
You won't find a post from me blaming any ukranian victims, which was what the post I commented on suggested I was doing. A bit offensive to be honest.
The Donbas front seems to be mostly stalling and turned into a war of attrition. With the influx of more (and more sophisticated compared to their Russian opponents) western heavy weapons Ukraine should be able to hold their positions until the Russian attack just collapses like we have seen in Kiyv.
Also interesting is Snake Island where Ukraine executed several drone attacks (since the Moskva is done, there are no more long range air defense capabilities in the area). They might try to recapture that island and by doing that essentially open up the western Black Sea and therefore the shipping route to Odesa.
On the negative Russia was performing strikes all over Ukraine, mostly on traffic infrastructure, seems to be an attempt to slow down their logistics. Let's hope it doesn't affect Ukraine too much.
Kofman & Alperovitch seem to think full mobilization probably won't happen. From a risk/benefit calculus it doesn't make sense.
What you are doing is meaningless. Perhaps you misunderstand what is going on in real life.
Try to understand what a big war like this means in reality, not in imagination. During a war, all the worse scum of society try to gain whatever they can. This is true in all wars, in all populations. I am sure there are scum Ukrainians, too. During normal times, in Ukraine (as in any country) there are people who steal, who murder, who rape, and of course there are police officers who overstep the proper boundaries. Do those people disappear during a war? On the contrary, the scum is more free to do whatever shit they were doing before, exactly because of the war. So, every problem becomes worse in a war. The reason for this war is Russia, and we should blame Russia for any of that, too! There is absolutely no point trying to find problems in Ukrainian society, this is irrelevant now (and I mean for us, the external observers). It is like talking about someone's bad haircut when we know they have terminal cancer.
It was a two line observation on a football forum that in no way excused anything done by the russians nor placed any blame on ukranian victims.
I'm not clear on the significance of Russia potentially "declaring war". Anyone? I mean it's so obviously a full on war already, only (some of) the Russian population might be fooled into believing they are not waging a war in Ukraine, but what might such a declaration really mean, especially in the face of them saying of course they aren't going to declare war (as if they'd do such a thing).
There were worries today about the Mauiopol remaining garrison as communication had been lost and Russians are pushing into the steel plant. The Azov commander has put a message out however, they still hold. Can't imagine what scenes are being played out there right now in close quarters.
Once Russia take the steel works, I think they'll declare the mission is over and keep those Eastern areas.
You don't think they'll also want to declare full occupation of the Donbas region?
It has huge legal implications. For example at the moment soldiers can theoretically just quit their job if they don't want to go to Ukraine and there's nothing their officers can legally do about it, except trying some shady blackmailing. And this happens, although it's not clear how big the numbers are. But Strelkov already publicly complained about that.
In a similar way conscripts can only legally be used in a war, so at the moment no conscripts can legally be send to fight. We now that this law was broken, but Putin had to publicly acknowledge that and officially announce an investigation of the case.
So it does matter a lot for the procedures inside Russia.
They want full occupation of Ukraine and that's not going to happen either. So I think at this point it’s not so much about what Russia really wants but more abou what they consider as the acceptable minimum to end this war they never wanted.
No...he knows he needs to end this imo and this is a neat full stop for him.
What is so important about this steel plant they've been fighting for for weeks? Is it just symbolic for the russians/ukranians or what?
Right now, purely symbolic for the Ukrainians.
It's insane they have hundreds of civilians trapped there , according to cnn.
Azovstal is the last resistance in the huge coastal area from Russia to Crimea. Establishing this land connection was one of the main objectives for Russia, as there is only one bridge connecting Crimea to Russia before this war, and that bridge might be quite vulnerable to attacks. Fully occupying Mariupol means Crimea is safely connected and not vulnerable to single attacks on one bridge.
This, plus every day they have held out there since this began has occupied a large portion of Russias southern forces, likely some of their most experienced soldiers that have been on the front since 2014. Its impossible to know just how much this has hindered the Russian advance in the south east and the Donbas, but these few men holding out there might just be the reason Russia doesn't hold all of Donbas already. Their deeds will no doubt go down in history, hopefully there will be survivors and they won't end up like the 'cyborgs' at Donesk airport.
Also, Russia has a special hatred for the Azov regiment still fighting there because they were the guys that liberated Mariupol from Russian forces in 2014 (not because of the Nazi bollocks). I'm sure there are a few Russian commanders that want to finish them.
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To be fair, an advance to clear invaders 40 km clear of Kharkiv in several days is a pretty significant advance by the Ukrainian military.
