Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

The BBC reports:

"Putin sacking top commanders over military failures - UK

Britain's Ministry of Defence has published its daily intelligence update, which today focuses on Russia allegedly firing a number of senior army commanders for underperforming in the Ukrainian war.

It also accuses the Kremlin of running a military and security operation fraught with "coverups and scapegoating" - an accusation often hurled at Moscow, and not just by the UK.

A small but comprehensive list of those believed to have been dismissed by Vladimir Putin includes:

Lieutenant General Serhiy Kisel, who commanded the elite 1st Guards Tank Army, for failing to capture Kharkiv
Vice Admiral Igor Osipov, who commanded Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, following the sinking of the Moskva cruiser in April
Russian Chief of General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov, who, the MoD says, may well still be in post but it's unclear whether he retains confidence"
 
TwoSheds said:
Classy folks. "Doesn't matter how many PhDs she has, how many languages she speaks, that's not what it takes. She needs to be a straight white man in order to represent the US."

Hard to believe the Republicans aren't still good friends with them really, they have so much in common :lol:
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They're saying something a bit different, although not in any way less racist, misogynistic & homophobic to be fair. They assume that she doesn't have any of these credentials for whatever reason (I'm sure that she does), but a white heterosexual male that finished a good university, has a PhD and speaks many languages will be overlooked in USA in order to appoint a black woman.

I wonder how many languages does he himself speak fluently (it seems like he should know English as he was a U.S. correspondent at some point though). He doesn't have a PhD though, even a fake one.
 
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Carolina Red said:
Ramping up the guerrilla / insurgency campaign
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Tbf I'm not sure if that's something that they're worried about at the moment. The important bit is to state that there are still Azov soldiers in Azovstal.
 
harms said:
They're saying something a bit different, although not in any way less racist, misogynistic & homophobic to be fair. They assume that she doesn't have any of these credentials for whatever reason (I'm sure that he does), but a white heterosexual male that finished a good university, has a PhD and speaks many languages will be overlooked in USA in order to appoint a black woman.

I wonder how many languages does he himself speak fluently (it seems like he should know English as he was a U.S. correspondent at some point though). He doesn't have a PhD though, even a fake one.
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Oh I see, still an incredibly dumb point given she's a lecturer at Columbia and speaks English, French and Haitian Creole. (Indeed it might be obvious that she would speak more than one language given she's French but works in the US in a public speaking role...)
 
Weird news of today/yesterday, journalists have identified the new love interest/husband (they have a child together) of one of Putin's daughters and his surname is... Zelensky! No relation though.
 
harms said:
Weird news of today/yesterday, journalists have identified the new love interest/husband (they have a child together) of one of Putin's daughters and his surname is... Zelensky! No relation though.
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Peskov informs Putin.

Insert Curb music.

Roll credits
 
TwoSheds said:
Classy folks. "Doesn't matter how many PhDs she has, how many languages she speaks, that's not what it takes. She needs to be a straight white man in order to represent the US."

Hard to believe the Republicans aren't still good friends with them really, they have so much in common :lol:
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Google ‘Republican lawmakers Moscow trip.’
 
Considering how decrepit the Russian military is along with those Google Maps images of polystyrene aircraft polyfilling their airbases, what’s the betting that their Nuclear capabilities are far less impressive than they claim?

Don’t get me wrong I imagine they have enough for some absolutely devastating attacks that would trigger MAD so it’s probably a pointless discussion anyway.
 
harms said:
Azov soldiers stuck on Azovstal? The tweet that you were responding to originally.
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Okay... but I wasn't saying they were "worried" about anything. I was saying that them staying behind plus the stuff happening in Melitopol seems like a concerted effort to increase behind the lines activities in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine.
 
Pexbo said:
Considering how decrepit the Russian military is along with those Google Maps images of polystyrene aircraft polyfilling their airbases, what’s the betting that their Nuclear capabilities are far less impressive than they claim?

Don’t get me wrong I imagine they have enough for some absolutely devastating attacks that would trigger MAD so it’s probably a pointless discussion anyway.
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I thought up a very stupid hypothetical test for that. Take one of those deserted pacific islands that have been used in the past for nuclear testing. The US picks one specific Russian launch device (ICBM or SSBN, like "launch from silo 3 at XYZ missile field") and Russia does the same to the US. Then each side has to launch at the island and we all see if they hit the target and the boom goes as expected.
 
Pexbo said:
Considering how decrepit the Russian military is along with those Google Maps images of polystyrene aircraft polyfilling their airbases, what’s the betting that their Nuclear capabilities are far less impressive than they claim?

Don’t get me wrong I imagine they have enough for some absolutely devastating attacks that would trigger MAD so it’s probably a pointless discussion anyway.
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Its extremely expensive to service the thermonuclear physics packages, they need refill with tritium gas and extraction of helium among other things. The missiles itself need regular maintenance in order to be on alert. I think this is one area that is ripe for corruption, because it's very realistic to assume these will never be used, and if they are, well there probably won't be anyone left to ask you.
 
Pexbo said:
Considering how decrepit the Russian military is along with those Google Maps images of polystyrene aircraft polyfilling their airbases, what’s the betting that their Nuclear capabilities are far less impressive than they claim?

Don’t get me wrong I imagine they have enough for some absolutely devastating attacks that would trigger MAD so it’s probably a pointless discussion anyway.
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Aren’t the fake aircraft images decoys created by UA (along with mannequins in the trenches) to create false targets? Or maybe I am not referring to the same thing.
 
The Firestarter said:
Its extremely expensive to service the thermonuclear physics packages, they need refill with tritium gas and extraction of helium among other things. The missiles itself need regular maintenance in order to be on alert. I think this is one area that is ripe for corruption, because it's very realistic to assume these will never be used, and if they are, well there probably won't be anyone left to ask you.
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I agree that there probably has been a lot of funds diverted away from maintenance. Obviously it’s not a theory I would like to see tested.
 
Carolina Red said:
Okay... but I wasn't saying they were "worried" about anything. I was saying that them staying behind plus the stuff happening in Melitopol seems like a concerted effort to increase behind the lines activities in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine.
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Yeah, but that was what I was commenting on. Azov are very disconnected from the general commandment (a matter on which they themselves have commented on multiple times) & it's unlikely that they're trying to instigating anything outside of Azovstal. They are simply stating that the fight for Azovstal isn't done yet even though a lot of their wounded comrades have surrendered to Russia/DNR.
 
harms said:
Yeah, but that was what I was commenting on. Azov are very disconnected from the general commandment (a matter on which they themselves have commented on multiple times) & it's unlikely that they're trying to instigating anything outside of Azovstal. They are simply stating that the fight for Azovstal isn't done yet even though a lot of their wounded comrades have surrendered to Russia/DNR.
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Yeah that's definitely possible, too.
 
MoskvaRed said:
I agree that there probably has been a lot of funds diverted away from maintenance. Obviously it’s not a theory I would like to see tested.
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We can probably assume the Russians are bullshitting about their nukes as much as their other weapons.
 
VorZakone said:
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Pretty obvious if nations want that grain out of Ukraine and to countries in need. For all of those US-led (with the British, French and even German present) military exercises we have seen over the years at China's doorstep to enforce freedom of navigation, one would be right to expect those to be put into good use in the Black Sea.
 
This might be the primary area of Russia’s last big push before their capability to launch offensives is exhausted, if the armchair analysts are right.

 
How many European politicians are being paid by Russia? Today. Perhaps as members at the board of various Russian companies.

Has anyone investigated this? It would be interesting if we had a list of the most prominent European politicians receiving Russian money, and of course a summary of their positions after Russia invaded Ukraine. What do those politicians believe about Ukraine today? Journalists should ask them, because these people have defined the European stance during the past 20 years. It is not enough to just say "mistakes were made", we should find out more details.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ed-of-office-for-not-cutting-ties-with-russia

Gerhard Schröder to be stripped of privileges for not cutting ties with Russia

Former German chancellor, who holds positions at Rosneft and Nord Stream, will lose staff and office

The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder will lose some of his post-office privileges after failing to cut his links with Russian energy companies over the Ukraine war, the Bundestag’s budgetary committee has decided.

Schröder, who was German head of government from 1998 until 2005, will be stripped of his office and staff, which cost about 419,000 euros (£354,500) in taxpayers’ money in 2021.

The motion, which was passed on Thursday afternoon with support from Schröder’s own Social Democratic party (SPD), the Greens, and the Free Democratic party (FDP), does not name the politician’s Kremlin connections or stance on the Ukraine war, most likely to avoid legal challenges.

Instead, the motion argues that the former leader no longer fulfils any continuing obligation as a statesperson and therefore does not require an office and staff to do so.

The main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), backed the move even though it had also called on the government to cut the ex-chancellor’s pension, equivalent to an annual salary of about 100,000 euros.

Schröder will keep his pension payments as well as his security detail.

The four employees who used to work at Schröder’s office, located almost directly opposite the Russian embassy on the Unter den Linden boulevard in Berlin, already resigned of their own accord in early March, after their boss had showed no intention of stepping down from his boardroom roles at Russian oil company Rosneft and pipeline company Nord Stream.

The Bundestag budgetary committee’s vote comes just hours after the European parliament urged the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to impose sanctions against Schröder because of his ties to the Kremlin.

The EU legislature passed a resolution on Thursday that said sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine should be extended “to the European members of the boards of major Russian companies and to politicians who continue to receive Russian money”.

As well as the German politician, the motion indirectly addresses former Austrian foreign minister Karin Kneissl, a supervisory board member at Rosneft who danced with Vladimir Putin at her own wedding in 2018.

Schröder’s close personal friendship with Putin has come under heavy criticism after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, and the SPD leadership has called on the 78-year-old to hand in his party membership.

The Hanover-based politician has come across as unrepentant, however. “I don’t do mea culpa,” Schröder told the New York Times in April. “It’s not my thing.”
 
RedDevilQuebecois said:
Pretty obvious if nations want that grain out of Ukraine and to countries in need. For all of those US-led (with the British, French and even German present) military exercises we have seen over the years at China's doorstep to enforce freedom of navigation, one would be right to expect those to be put into good use in the Black Sea.
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The problem is that nobody but Russia has subs in the Black Sea. Turkey wouldn't allow even NATO subs to enter based on the Montreux Convention. The US couldn't put a single aircraft carrier in the Black Sea and could, at most, put maybe 2-3 destroyers/cruisers if Turkey hadn't closed the strait for military traffic because of the war. The only way I could see Turkey letting in NATO ships would be if they themselves were at risk of running out of grain, which they won't be because there are many poorer nations that will suffer first.
 
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