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March 3, 2022
Ukraine Open Thread 2022-20
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@comandante #93
Why do you think so?
From my view, what matters is the resolution of the SE cauldron. Something like 1/2 to 2/3rds of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are there.
Should the “Donetsk cauldron” be cleansed – that could not possibly be seen as anything but the end for Ukrainian resistance.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:22 utc | 101
There was recent talk of Putin’s Playbook determining what happens in this war. I suspect it’s quite different to what the Pentagon uses and is most likely Vom Kriege by Carl von Clausewitz. I suspect Putin explained his political objectives for this confrontation to his military then allowed them to design the war so that he could achieve those objective.
Without understanding his political objectives, it’s largely impossible to work out what the Russian Army is up to and typical American military tactics give nothing away. Hopefully in time someone might work it out and let the world know what has happened.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Mar 3 2022 16:23 utc | 102
Ze’s again on TV
https://t.me/dvesti22/1763
Looks a bit exhausted. Or a bit intoxicated.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 16:24 utc | 103
reply to RoS #31
“Of course I don’t recall any sanctions against Nato when it invaded Iraq ……”
I don’t recall NATO going along. France declined to aid the effort and we retaliated by renaming “French fries” “freedom fries”
Posted by: Jeffrey | Mar 3 2022 16:24 utc | 104
What you wrote may be true, but it also may be “theoretical” or “design” specifications.
I would suspect there is also a big difference between driving tanks on base or during exercises vs. during actual times of war.
Peacetime performance is with regular scheduled maintenance along with pre- and post- movement inspections.
I very much doubt the same regime is being followed as Russian armored formations advance in Ukraine.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:13 utc | 90
True, but it should not be TWO orders of magnitude. Reduction from 2000 km to 200km – well, maybe. But not to 20.
As for lack of regular scheduled maintenance – it would take its toll for sure, but not in the first days of war.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 16:27 utc | 105
Well things have escalated to the brink of WWIII, as I’ve been pointing out. The CCP will inherit what ever is left of eurasia. Hubris is the hallmark of all despots.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/28/putin-has-gambled-everything-on-his-snap-invasion-of-ukraine-now-his-political-survival-in-russia-is-in-doubt/
Posted by: wobblie | Mar 3 2022 16:27 utc | 106
… @Maximus | 73
“Putin tried, or is trying to use the mindset of a spy to deal with a military operation”
Wow, you have insight into Putin’s head! Bravo
You have had too much MSM…me thinks.
Posted by: @Idiocrates | 76 …
Comm: By that token, I could say what insight into Putin’s head to suggest otherwise? That aside, it is not rocket science to know that one’s professional as well as personal experience form the basis of deliberation and judgement. A spy’s mindset is different to a soldier’s mindset, a spy kills to shoot, a soldier shoots to kill.
… So now that the front-loaded sanctions and propaganda war are scorching the earth beneath Russia, and the Ukrainians are so vicious in their tactics and deception; together they stupidly opened the gates of Hell, so I ask, what’s left to lose from now on? Give them what they want!
LET IT RAIN-ALL’S FAIR IN WAR.
Posted by: Circe | 74 …
Comm: There is a lot “left to lose” keep in mind the subtle but neccessary distinction between “war” and “battle”. The military battle takes place in the enemies’ territory when you are on the offensive, however the other battles (psychological, financial, political, e.t.c.) takes place mainly in yours. A friend in the Kremlin could turn foe, if you lose the “war” (i.e. battle of deception) keep in mind those standing in line of succession to the Russian presidency, have motives, interests, fears e.t.c., which if not taken into account, we would relive the “battles of succession” that we think are relegated to monarchies not democracies, forgetting that in either systems the only constant is man. Which is why the @Circe information is power not authority.
Myself, I’m less concerned about the Donbass cauldron or the Black Sea coastline, and more concerned with the western border, especially the one with Poland. If that border is tight enough, the influx of mercs and weaponry will be minimal and the possibility of hot war with NATO reduced a bit. If not, that border needs to be tightened yesterday. The Donbass cauldron can wait.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 3 2022 16:29 utc | 108
What I fail to understand, is why people can’t see the “double standard” applied when the empire’s actions are concerned, vs. every other nations response to specific problems. Is the world really an U$A construct???
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 3 2022 16:29 utc | 109
@Arioch | 103
definitely high on something.
he’s repeating MSM talking points from what I could understand:
what guarantees?
we are not invading anyone?
what do you want me to say, to whom?
what should I give back?
its also an information bomb.
give back what?
what do you want from us?
leave our country or if you don’t want to leave sit down with me and talk.
but not 300 m away from me like with Macron or Scholz.
i am a normal guy, don’t be afraid, sit down and talk.
we are not threatening anyone, we are not terrorists.
yep, definitely on drugs…
Posted by: Idiocrates | Mar 3 2022 16:32 utc | 110
@ wobblie | Mar 3 2022 16:27 utc | 106
Yes, wobblie, Putin’s survival is so much in doubt that his popularity ratings have increased. He’d better have a hollow tooth for the cyanide capsule, right?
Every now and then Counterpunch prints something worthwhile, but mostly it’s a sewer of “democratic socialist” propaganda.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 3 2022 16:32 utc | 111
Russia is still doing PR exercise while NATO is all over Ukraine with “foreign mercenaries” ( yeah, right, like anyone believes this) and what else. And Russia is concerned what will Guardian or Washington Post are going to write about them? Even with Russia pussyfooting around Ukraine war tribunals already write indictments for war crimes against them. I wonder if Russia is competing there for participation trophy or what.
Posted by: donnie | Mar 3 2022 16:32 utc | 112
@ vetinLA | Mar 3 2022 16:29 utc | 109… most people today live on the surface and can’t concentrate for longer then a nanosecond…as a consequence they believe what the media tells them 24-7… basic stuff.. propaganda 101… the info world is a U$A construct, especially for all those in the west, unless they get out some..
Posted by: james | Mar 3 2022 16:32 utc | 113
What if Russia cuts the electricity/
communications around midnight in Kiev and then sends multiple bombers in around 3 a.m. striking all fuel depots, and warehouses around Kiev, lighting up the night sky till dawn, scaring the living shit out of the molotov resisters, and repeats every night depriving them of any sleep and rest day or night wearing them down?
Posted by: Circe | Mar 3 2022 16:34 utc | 114
@ Circe | Mar 3 2022 16:34 utc | 115
That would terrorize the civilian population as well, and I’m grateful that the Russian leadership is less inclined to do that than you are.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 3 2022 16:37 utc | 115
Zelenskyy live ==> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGrhkJjxWQ
Posted by: too scents | Mar 3 2022 16:39 utc | 116
Man 32,
“And regarding Israel, I see in one of the comments that they are listed in the non-sanctioning countries. I think they got exempted from the US pressure to sanction Russia in the fear that Russia might retaliate in Syria against Israel.”
According to the Horsetrading Theory of Everything (HTOE), the everything means that there’s even a horsetrade for neutral nation status. Switzerland just left behind it’s neutral nation status, did it not?
Israel…. is the new Switzerland.
It’s a diabolical stroke of genius.
And you heard it here first.
Posted by: reante | Mar 3 2022 16:39 utc | 117
Circe | 115
What if Russia cuts the electricity/
communications around midnight in Kiev and then sends multiple bombers in around 3 a.m. striking all fuel depots, and warehouses around Kiev, lighting up the night sky till dawn, scaring the living shit out of the molotov resisters, and repeats every night depriving them of any sleep and rest day or night wearing them down?They could call it “Shock and Awe”.
More likely, the Western media would call it a “brutal bombardment”.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 3 2022 16:40 utc | 118
our true national poet laureate was a house plant. Here’s turdblossom: you gotta catapault the narrative.
So here’s the NBA, catapaulting the narrative. Don’t tell anyone that Russia invading Latvia is probably not the next step, no matter what. But lose no opportunity to push your product. such a hero Davis Bertans, sitting on the bench.
Russia done been through the shock, now they are adding the awe. but, in the US, no matter how many millions died in iraq, every shot taken against a US soldier was a crime, self defense is a crime.
I love love love how concerned about refugees we are! I guarantee ZERO Ukrainian refugees will be shown drowning anywhere. and
how we get to see what bombs do to cities, with no Schwartzkopf and journalists laughing about it! isn’t it exciting? do you see it? thank God our bombs are smart. just look at all the rubble their bombs make.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 3 2022 16:44 utc | 119
What I fail to understand, is why people can’t see the “double standard” applied when the empire’s actions are concerned, vs. every other nations response to specific problems. Is the world really an U$A construct???
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 3 2022 16:29 utc | 109
People cannot see what they do not want to see.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 3 2022 16:45 utc | 120
It really is the height of hypocrisy that for over 70 years the people of Palestine have been systematically murdered and had their lands stolen, yet there has been nothing like the outcry from Nato and the EU over that like there has been over Russia defending its borders and stopping the genocide of Eastern Ukrainians now independent republics, and the de-nazifying of certain areas of Ukraine.
If nothing else this war has given us a great insight into Nato the UN and the EU, and its one of bias and hypocrisy.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-february-2022/34941
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 3 2022 16:45 utc | 121
Circe @ 115 asked;”What if Russia cuts the electricity/
communications around midnight in Kiev and then sends multiple bombers in around 3 a.m. striking all fuel depots, and warehouses around Kiev, lighting up the night sky till dawn, scaring the living shit out of the molotov resisters, and repeats every night depriving them of any sleep and rest day or night wearing them down?”
THAT, would be an “empire” attack plan….
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 3 2022 16:46 utc | 122
I see the bashi-bazouks and NATO weapons shipments are slowly trickling in, but it appears the Russians have their number. 3 ‘civilian’ ships in 5 days:
An Estonian-owned cargo ship has been sunk off the coast of Ukraine after hitting a mine.
Four crew members are still missing and two are in a life raft at sea following the explosion near Odessa.
Igor Ilves, managing director of Tallinn-based manager Vista Shipping Agency, said the ship likely struck a mine, adding: ‘The vessel has finally sunk. Two of the crew are in a raft on the water and four others are missing. I don’t know where they are at the moment.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10573541/Estonian-cargo-ship-SINKS-hitting-Ukraine-coast-near-Odessa.html
So if they struck a mine they must have been wandering where they shouldn’t have been …
An unidentified missile struck a Bangladeshi vessel docked at the Ukrainian port of Olvia on the northern Black Sea, setting it a blaze and killing an engineer on board, the ship owner said.
Bangladesh Shipping Corp. said the MV Banglar Samriddhi was stranded at the port after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. The vessel wasn’t carrying any cargo and had 29 crew on board.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-03/missile-sets-bangladeshi-vessel-ablaze-in-ukraine-port-one-dead
No cargo, huh ? Riiight …
Matsuyama, Ehime Pref. – A cargo ship owned by a Japanese firm was hit by a missile off the coast of Ukraine in the Black Sea on Friday, injuring one crew member, the marine transportation firm in western Japan said Saturday, as heavy fighting ensued following the Russian invasion of its former Soviet neighbor.
The Panamanian-registered cargo ship Namura Queen was damaged and one of the 20 Filipino crew sustained a nonlife-threatening injury to his shoulder, according to the firm based in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture.
The ship is still operable and has headed to Turkey, where the damage to the vessel will be assessed, the firm said.
Ukraine authorities said the missile was fired by Russian forces, following their military invasion of Ukraine earlier this week.
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Sunday that the Japanese government urged Russia through diplomatic channels to ensure the safety of Japanese ships and citizens.
The incident occurred near a port in the Odessa region, southern Ukraine, in waters that vessels had been warned to avoid. The Namura Queen did not know of the initial warning and was hit by the missile as it was trying to move outside the area.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/02/26/national/ukraine-japan-shipping/
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 3 2022 16:47 utc | 123
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 3 2022 14:48 utc | 37
Do you remember the 125 000 trained guerilla fighters advancing on Syria from Jordan about 10 years ago? We’re still waiting…
Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Mar 3 2022 16:47 utc | 124
The US Declares War on Europe.
While the Zionized US government continues buying Russian oil (1 million barrels per day), European vassals were blackmailed from buying Russian gas to allow Europe to become another Afghanistan in a due time. Without Russian gas, the European economy is prepared for collapse.
First, the Wars for Israel led to the influx of migrants and refugees, which atomized European societies.
Second, by disregarding Russian security concerns and positioning NATO military rocket installation in the vicinity of Russia – and arming and training Ukrainian self-proclaimed Nazi formations – the US MIC has improved its baseline and ensured the continuation of supplying US-made weaponry for military activities in Europe.
The European governments and unelected bureaucrats in Briusseles do not want to look ahead; they are bought and blackmailed by the US Ziocons.
Posted by: Cerena | Mar 3 2022 16:50 utc | 125
@Arioch #105
You said
True, but it should not be TWO orders of magnitude. Reduction from 2000 km to 200km – well, maybe. But not to 20.
I wouldn’t make any assumptions about military equipment reliability, especially since what we are used to is civilian levels of reliability.
Note also I didn’t say EVERY armored vehicle would break down every 20-30 miles. I said any given armored UNIT = multiple vehicles, would have a breakdown every 20-30 miles.
You said
As for lack of regular scheduled maintenance – it would take its toll for sure, but not in the first days of war.
You are forgetting that most of the Russian units on the Ukraine border and in Ukraine now are not operating from their home bases. So they have already been operating in the field for some time – and even some parts of them were engaged in miltary exercises (Belarus).
So I cannot say I agree with your statement.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:50 utc | 126
Posted by: vetinLA | Mar 3 2022 16:29 utc | 109
What I fail to understand, is why people can’t see the “double standard” applied when the empire’s actions are concerned, vs. every other nations response to specific problems. Is the world really an U$A construct???
“It is difficult to get a man to see a double-standard, when his salary depends on his not seeing it.”
(with apologies to Upton Sinclair)
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 3 2022 16:51 utc | 127
@Circe #74
It didn’t take long for you to jump the shark…again.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:51 utc | 128
India is figuring out how to establish a rupee payment mechanism for trade with Russia, independent from SWIFT system, to soften the blow of Western sanctions.
Biden Administration looking whether to apply or waive sanctions on India under ‘countering America’s adversaries through sanctions Act’ (CAATSA): US diplomat
Posted by: AB17 | Mar 3 2022 16:53 utc | 129
Jeffrey (104)
Nato members did take part, though Nato had no input in their actions, however.
Prior to the campaign and at the request of Turkey, NATO undertook precautionary defensive measures by deploying for instance surveillance aircraft and missile defences on Turkish territory.
NATO also supported Poland – a participant in the US-led Multinational Stabilization Force set up after the campaign – with for instance communications and logistics.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_51977.htm
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 3 2022 16:53 utc | 130
How low can the US stoop!
Pressure has been put on the International Paralympic Committee and now Russians and Belarusians are barred from participating in the Beijing Games.
👎 What an ugly thing to do!
Posted by: Circe | Mar 3 2022 16:53 utc | 131
Robert Macaire 55,
Just a wee nitpick here, Robert, regarding
“But what is genius if not the ability to imagine a solution no one else could’ve thought of? Who but Einstein could’ve dreamt that the speed of light is more of an absolute than time itself?”
Time is but a mental construct of the human metaconscious. Time is the OPPOSITE of absolute.
We can ‘time’ the universe to the ‘second,’ but we cannot make it tick.
All that we CAN objectively say about the universal CONTINUUM is that the past and the future both absolutely exist, and that the present does not.
cheers.
Posted by: reante | Mar 3 2022 16:54 utc | 132
@ Circe | Mar 3 2022 16:53 utc | 132… all must suffer when the west goes to war…. your man biden in the saddle..
Posted by: james | Mar 3 2022 16:55 utc | 133
@Arch Bungle #124
Thanks for the links.
I wonder how much is due to simple incompetence and “fog of war”.
The 1st incident: Russia has zero benefit to laying mines since they control the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine. So the mine is 99.9% Ukrainian.
The 2nd incident: Likely Russian, maybe cargo is the issue
The 3rd incident: Why would Russians be shooting a missile from Odessa (which Russia doesn’t control yet) at a ship in the Black Sea?
Seems much more likely some Ukrainian coastal defense unit or military unit near the coast seeing a ship in the Russian controlled Black Sea and shooting at it.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:59 utc | 134
Oh look another Western puppet body condemns Russia.
“In a resolution passed on Thursday by its board of directors, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reportedly “deplored” Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denounced the document, calling it politicized and factually incorrect.
The resolution, which is yet to be published, apparently calls on Russia to allow the Ukrainian authorities to resume control of its nuclear sites.”
Imagine if the Ukrainian Nazis had control of the nuclear stations, psy-op anyone.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 3 2022 17:01 utc | 135
Does this means that Gazprom has finally cut the gas supply to EU ?
https://www.rt.com/business/551150-russia-gas-supplies-europe-stop/
Russia’s main gas pipeline to Europe stops supplies
Bids remained for supplies in both directions
Russia’s main gas pipeline to Europe stops supplies
Westbound gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped on Thursday, while bids remained for supplies in both directions, according to data tracked by the pipeline operator Gascade.
According to the operator, westbound gas supplies had been mostly at about 17.5 million kWh/h at Mallnow metering point for some 10 hours before the stoppage.
The data also showed preliminary bids of 6.4 million kWh/h for the next 24 hours for westbound supplies, with bids for eastbound flows of 6.1 million kWh/h.
Gazprom said on Thursday it was shipping gas to Europe via Ukraine in line with customers’ requests.
In December, the German-Polish section of the pipeline switched into reverse – eastbound – mode as buyers in Poland drew on stored supplies from Germany rather than buying more Russian gas at the spot market where the prices recorded all-time highs nearly every day. Western media at the time accused Russia’s Gazprom of deliberately cutting European supplies.
The Russian state-controlled energy giant has intermittently sent gas westward via the link in recent days amid high demand in Europe. The company has also increased supplies to the continent via Ukraine.
Russia covers nearly 40% of European gas demand with the Yamal-Europe route accounting for nearly 15% of the country’s westbound supply.
Posted by: SysATI | Mar 3 2022 17:02 utc | 136
Sushi 63,
There’s no new system being born. From here on out it’s merely the old system trying to adapt to its terminal collapse. The sooner folks let go of their denial of this reality the better off they will be.
WADR.
Posted by: reante | Mar 3 2022 17:02 utc | 137
I said any given armored UNIT = multiple vehicles, would have a breakdown every 20-30 miles.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:50 utc | 127
well, then this is not quantifiable and can not be argued at all.
A single tank with its crew – is a unit.
A whole Russian army or even the whole of NATO – is a unit too.
Picking a unit of a proper size you can get almost any statistical average.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 17:04 utc | 138
well, I don’t think Western/NATO leaders are sad to see their neo-Nazi mercenaries chewed up in the meat grinder; this way everybody gets their lawn mowed; frustrated with Covid and gov’t and just wanna get your frustration out killing Commies? Come to Ukraine! Shit, let’s buy em plane tickets.
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 3 2022 17:06 utc | 139
… Circe | 115
What if Russia cuts the electricity/
communications around midnight in Kiev and then sends multiple bombers in around 3 a.m. striking all fuel depots, and warehouses around Kiev, lighting up the night sky till dawn, scaring the living shit out of the molotov resisters, and repeats every night depriving them of any sleep and rest day or night wearing them down?
They could call it “Shock and Awe”.
More likely, the Western media would call it a “brutal bombardment”.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 3 2022 16:40 utc | 119 …
@Keith for the “media” to call it anything, they need footage of something, how can they have footage of anything when there is no electricity to power the “one million technological eyes and ears” witnessing, recording and transmitting in real-time?
Their other option would be drones, but those have a short life-span and can be hijacked (re: Iran) or shot down (re: Turkey). Putin would have achieved his goal way quicker and with far less casualities on both sides, had he knocked out the Ukranian electrical grid. NATO & co, would have had far less time to react, much less strategize as they are doing now, which is to use civilians led by trained spies as cannon fodder then under the watchful eyes of the “one million eyes and ears of technology” use deception to turn citizens in allied countries against their leaders stances.
Russia’s military doctrine is playing out before our eyes, and it mistakens its military battle ground experience in Syria against a proxy-foe with minimum warfare know-how, with Ukraine, a vassal-state. Those it fought in Syria were trying to forge a state, Ukraine is a forged state, the former is a skeleton, the latter is a fully formed body, you don’t rely on your experience of dealing with a skeleton to deal with a body.
When western entities (Moldova government, Microsoft, etc) scramble to find any volunteers t o aid Ukrainians – they can scarcely find Russian-speakign ones, and almost no Ukrainian-speakers.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 16:19 utc | 98
There are hundreds of thousands of Russian speaking Moldovans, although some are in Israel by now. Where is Avigdor Liberman when we need him?
Is Microsoft involved in the reception of refugees?
Most refugees crossed to Poland where there were ca. 2 millions of work seeking migrants already. A lot of those know Polish by now (it is easy to learn a similar language with some allowances for frequent mistakes and “strange” pronunciation).
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 3 2022 17:08 utc | 141
Westbound gas flows from Russia to Germany via the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped on Thursday…
Does this means that Gazprom has finally cut the gas supply to EU ?
Posted by: SysATI | Mar 3 2022 17:02 utc | 137
No.
“Yamal” pipe is going through Poland and it for months was working in start-stop and low volume mode.
There were funny days when Poles had to pull gas from Germany (usually they pretend doing so, while actually flowing gas into Germany, so called “virtual reverse”)
The only noticeable thing now it seems is that this time GazProm booked some pipe service, but skipped using it. Prior weeks GazProm just mostly ignored those auctions, only caring about long-term contracts baseline, and only rarely attended auctions to buy some extra. But if theu bought – they used it. Now they unusually paid for service – and let it expire.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 17:10 utc | 142
I’m baffled why some say the Russians have to achieve objective X by such and such date. This only makes sense to me only if X needs to be achieved before objective Y or objective Z.
What is the hurry? The only plausible one I’ve heard is the NATO/Ukr “consolidates their supply lines”, perhaps but not proven – if your air power can’t prevent that, you are in trouble anyway.
If the idea is to encircle and weaken for later closing of a siege, then things are going magnificently well for the Russians. Seems to me they will go at their own pace, and anything critiques of the their progress are just a cunning attempt to induce mistakes in the campaign. Certainly, by reaching a “cease fire” early with Ukraine likely NONE of the sanctions will be lifted, because that is how the Talmud works… watch the new and improved JCPOA with Iran and see how long the Empire of Lies actually holds to any agreement (what, if Trump wins in 2024, five minutes after he reassumes office?)
Posted by: Simplicius | Mar 3 2022 17:12 utc | 143
Sushi; that article is crap;
Biden didn’t stop anything Sushi; you need to discount idiots that believe partisan fantasies. The US IS oil independent, but the price will STILL soar here, as Europe will be short, so, our oil will be arbitraged higher even if we’re self sufficient. Further, we would never be so supplied that we’d have a vast surplus as that tanks prices; It was such a tanking in prices that saw 1000 fracking firms FAIL under Trump; I don’t blame Trump, cause presidents don’t really control such matters; but due to Covid tanking demand. So, it was under Trump and low prices that we lost our domestic production. So, partisan analysis blinds one to reality, and these stupid papers that are just pretext for more partisanship
Posted by: ScottinDallas | Mar 3 2022 17:12 utc | 144
@134 james
I could care less about Biden; let him keep digging the hole for himself and the economy.
The strategy was always…sinking Trump and U.S. dominance.
Posted by: Circe | Mar 3 2022 17:13 utc | 145
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 16:59 utc | 135
I wonder how much is due to simple incompetence and “fog of war”.
To be honest it could be a lot of things, I’m not discounting false flags by Ukrainians as well.
I’m disinclined to suspect human error – too many events in too short a time.
I favour the idea the Russians are driving away ships they deem suspicious, but on the other hand if they were really targeting weapons shipments the strikes would have completely obliterated those ships. So perhaps I’m jumping the shark on this one.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 3 2022 17:15 utc | 146
Canada is fast-tracking refugees from Ukraine with no limit on numbers. Unlike their non-white compradors in Afghanistan, who are still filling out forms.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 3 2022 17:16 utc | 147
@142 “Most refugees crossed to Poland where there were ca. 2 millions of work seeking migrants already.”
Most or probably headed towards Germany already. Or the Promised Land….Britain.
Posted by: dh | Mar 3 2022 17:21 utc | 148
@reante | 133
All that we CAN objectively say about the universal CONTINUUM is that the past and the future both absolutely exist, and that the present does not.
This is not really the right thread for this, but it is not exactly as you say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheeler%27s_delayed-choice_experiment
Posted by: Idiocrates | Mar 3 2022 17:22 utc | 149
@Arioch #139
Actually, it isn’t that hard.
First of all, any specification on reliability generally is in terms of MTTF: mean time to failure.
MTTF is not a hard number – it is a statistical average.
Now, I have no idea what the MTTF shape looks like for an armored vehicle, my experience is entirely with semiconductor devices.
It matters greatly what the slope looks like: arithmetic, geometric, asymptotic – in reality some combination depending on time from start.
But let’s say it is arithmetic – i.e. a fairly consistent chance of failure at any given time.
2000 km = 1250 miles. A company of AFV in the OP thread was 13 vehicles; so a movement of 100 miles would have a statistically very high chance of failure in one vehicle.
So note that even with the theoretical MTTF spec for a Russian armored vehicle (according to your data), an actual breakdown in a movement of 100 miles is statistically extremely likely.
Now how many Russian armored vehicles are in Ukraine now?
How many hundreds of miles has each vehicle traveled in the past week?
500 armored vehicles traveling 400 miles each = well over 150 vehicle breakdowns.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 17:24 utc | 150
A commentator at Escobar’s VK page provided this outstanding nugget from the past that many never read or learned about, “CIA: Undermining and Nazifying Ukraine Since 1953”:
“The recent declassification of over 3800 documents by the Central Intelligence Agency provides detailed proof that since 1953 the CIA operated two major programs intent on not only destabilizing Ukraine but Nazifying it with followers of the World War II Ukrainian Nazi leader Stepan Bandera.
“The CIA programs spanned some four decades. Starting as a paramilitary operation that provided funding and equipment for such anti-Soviet Ukrainian resistance groups as the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (UHVR); its affiliates, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), all Nazi Banderists. The CIA also provided support to a relatively anti-Bandera faction of the UHVR, the ZP-UHVR, a foreign-based virtual branch of the CIA and British MI-6 intelligence services. The early CIA operation to destabilize Ukraine, using exile Ukrainian agents in the West who were infiltrated into Soviet Ukraine, was codenamed Project AERODYNAMIC.
“A formerly TOP SECRET CIA document dated July 13, 1953, provides a description of AERODYNAMIC: «The purpose of Project AERODYNAMIC is to provide for the exploitation and expansion of the anti-Soviet Ukrainian resistance for cold war and hot war purposes. Such groups as the Ukrainian Supreme Council of Liberation (UHVR) and its Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN), the Foreign Representation of the Ukrainian Supreme Council of Liberation (ZPUHVR) in Western Europe and the United States, and other organizations such as the OUN/B will be utilized». The CIA admitted in a 1970 formerly SECRET document that it had been in contact with the ZPUHVR since 1950.”
I would say contact was made well before 1950 by OSS sometime after 1943’s incursion into Italy since Alan Dulles was involved in that region. Yet more evidence of Outlaw US Empire fomented terrorism aimed at Russia that also proves the existence of a longstanding policy of utilizing terrorists and the formal formation of a Terrorist Foreign Legion that was sent to operate in Eastern Europe and Central America–do recall the events in Guatemala that culminated in the 1949 coup and US-sponsored genocide there.
It’s important to recall that Putin as a KGB member would have learned much of that background, which is why he’s gone through great lengths to be patient with the great mass of Ukrainians who’ve been manipulated and exploited as expendable pawns that’s part of the unpublished yet very important aspect of the underlying context in the operation to free Ukraine. The only reason neo-Nazis exist anywhere today is because the Outlaw US Empire kept them alive and helped them to multiply. Russia most certainly knows that fact, although most of the world remains ignorant. That’s yet another reason why I wrote that one of the aims of Russia and China is to finally end WW2 by extinguishing Nazism, which means confronting the #1 Fascist nation in the world and incubator of Nazism, the Outlaw US Empire.
Reportedly French TV journalist from Donbass were erroneously let into live TV where she instead of confirming Russian invasion claied that she is for 8 years filming how Ukrainian government is killing civilians. Multiple hints to speak “truth” rather than Russian propaganda fallen on deaf ear. Reportedly that sequence was later removed from TV station archives and the journalists herself was fired and removed from Twitter. Can’t check it, last days Twitter does not work for me at all.
One perhaps can start searching from this: Anne-Laure Bonnel : « Aujourd’hui, du côté où je me trouve (Donbass), les bombardements sont Ukrainiens », dans #HDPros pic.twitter.com/GBOH1xZQ7U
Also https://t.me/denazi_UA/1236
~~~~~~~~~~
Is Microsoft involved in the reception of refugees?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Mar 3 2022 17:08 utc | 142
Can’t validate it, but allegedly East European offices of Microsoft considerurge their employees to volunteer aid ukrainian refugees condidering that activity a full-time full-paid work day.
~~~~
Also, below are allegedly social network video messages of Moldova citizens aghast by Ukrainians behaviour. Might be a psy-ops too, of course.
https://t.me/denazi_UA/1244
https://t.me/denazi_UA/1259
~~~~
This allegfedly is a video by Ukrainian girl, whose father was a bouard guard on Snake island and declared dead by Ze. Russia claims they all surrendered and were safely moved to Crimea as POWs (albeit Ukrainain fleet unsuccessfully attacked our ship trying to sink those borderguards and make them into martyrs one way or another).
https://t.me/denazi_UA/1293
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 17:26 utc | 152
Sputnik live feed, where I was watchin Putin meetng with Security Council, stopped when Shoigu was supposed to give his report. I listened to Putin.
Does anyone have the Sputnik live feed of this important meeting?
Posted by: JB | Mar 3 2022 17:28 utc | 153
The persistent complaints and gripes about Russian military performance reminds me of the Georgian War 2008.
Picking out from what I remember:
Russian reconnaissance was quite poor, and updated intelligence unavailable to the ground or air force. At several points their units were ambushed by Georgians, and in a number of cases the two sides ran into each other by accident. In an authoritative account of this conflict, in the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies’ book The Tanks of August, the column of the 58th Army commander stumbled into a Georgian recon unit, and the resulting fight left the commanding general wounded. Initial Russian units into the fight had little situational awareness of where Georgian forces were, so they pressed forward to make contact…
Technology is an important force multiplier, but it didn’t make the difference in the 2008 war. This conflict should be considered the Soviet military’s last hurrah. According to some accounts, 60 to 75 percent of the 58th Army’s tanks were T-62Ms and T-72B1s, with a smattering of upgraded T-72BAs. As The Tanks of August and other accounts show, none of these could withstand Georgian antitank guided missiles. Many of the Russian T-72s had empty reactive armor canisters, meaning the reactive armor was mostly decorative. Quite a few of the infantry fighting vehicles were of the old BMP-1 or BMD-1 type, with fairly primitive sights and outdated kit, while the 58th Army’s command vehicles were described as “falling apart.” If Georgians had had the vaunted Javelin antitank guided missile, which they do now, it would have made little difference because they already had sufficiently powerful armaments to destroy Russia’s dated tanks.
In general, Russian missiles missed their targets because they had no actionable intelligence. Despite promises of being issued GLONASS satellite position system receivers, Russian forces had no satellite data, and were forced to rely on maps and vintage targeting equipment that was decades old.
Russia’s 4th Air and Air Defense Army performed quite poorly, and the various services fought entirely disconnected campaigns. Poor coordination, little communication, and no way to conduct real-time targeting severely hampered Russian air power. The air battle and air defense battle were like two drunken boxers. Russia’s air force was ineffective at suppressing Georgian air defenses, and Georgian air defenses were ineffective at suppressing the Russian air force. The air force conducted air raids throughout the depth of Georgia, but with poor intelligence, and the ground force had no connection to their fight.
Sound familiar? “Anti-Fragile” comes to mind.
My takeaway from watching that event play out was how capable the Russians were at adapting on the fly to messy circumstances with supposedly imperfect planning, supposedly high failure rate equipment, messed up logistics but able to adapt at the strategic level to achieve their goal.
The Russian army is big, rusty, clumsy and lethal.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 3 2022 17:28 utc | 154
ScottinDallas @145–
Please stop with the BigLie that the Outlaw US Empire is oil independent. It most certainly is not and hasn’t been for many decades.
Reportedly in India’s twitter – https://t.me/dvesti22/1766
But Modi’s government might have another idea.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 17:31 utc | 156
RE: Posted by: Julian | Mar 3 2022 15:44 utc | 67
Have you noticed how Russia handles Israel in Syria?
Three monkeys style
Posted by: William Haught | Mar 3 2022 17:31 utc | 157
The mass exit of Ukrainians has a two-dimensional advantage:
1. They’re going to further sink the EU economy. I hope the U.S. takes at least 500,000 given they’re so concernnned for them poor Ukie refugees;
2. Obviously, they’re getting out of harm’s way; that’s good.
Posted by: Circe | Mar 3 2022 17:31 utc | 158
Southfront is not a reliable source of information. It is a clickbait trap full of video links they lift from other sources, but it’s “analysis” is lightweight and suspect…frequently full of unsupported claims and negativity. Be warned.
Posted by: nook | Mar 3 2022 17:32 utc | 159
Posted by: Norwegian | Mar 3 2022 15:36 utc | 58
What should be nationalized is ALL currently being closed Western facilities and plants (automakers etc).
Then put them back on production without respecting western patents.
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Mar 3 2022 17:34 utc | 160
We shouldn’t assume that any of the parties is acting irrationally, when in fact EVERYONE is acting logically according to how they perceive the world works.
China in its history has gone through a over dozen dynasties. With the exception of the Yuan Dynasty, when the Chinese economy funded the Mongol Invasion of Europe and the Middle East, China’s rise did not cause or even coincide with the decline of any other nations. Similarly, with the exception of the Qing Dynasty, when the Imperial treasury was looted by foreign powers, China’s decline did not benefit any other nation. As a result of how history was experienced/taught by the Chinese, they tend take a non-zero-sum view of the the world: wealth and prosperity can be created AND destroyed. From their perspective, poverty can be eradicated on a global scale. The BRI is implementation of the non-zero-sum worldview on a grand scale, involving the development of infrastructure (roads, power plants, telecommunications) and industry in underdeveloped nations to grow their economies. Of course, the fact that the emerging economies just happen to have China as their largest trading partner is just a happy little coincidence, not at all due to all the roads and sea-routes in the BRI leading to China.
Contrast how history was experienced/taught by Western civilizations. Carthago delenda est: The rise of Rome would not have been possible without the destruction of Carthage. The rise of Islam would not have been possible without the decline of the Christian Roman Empire. Without the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire to the Ottoman Turks, there would not have been the Renaissance and the subsequent proliferation of the Western technology and culture. The rise of Spain was fueled by the plunder of the Aztecs and the Incans. The sun setting on the British Empire gave birth to the American century. As a result, the zero-sum world view is predominant in Western (and Westernized) nations.
From a zero-sum point of view, subjugation is preferable, but destruction is acceptable. Thus their preferred method is to subjugate or destroy countries economically via sanctions, and when they do attack militarily they target a nation’s “means of communication, transportation, food production, water supply, and other aspects of infrastructure” (such as schools and hospitals).
There is no loyalty between zero-sum nations: the EU has been trying to destroy Britain since the Brexit, and Turkey is being targeted for economic destruction ever since they got weakened by their Syrian misadventure. Hence, everyone is trying to get others to make the first move against China or Russia, the loser will be devoured by the horde. (In the case of Ukraine, if Ukraine wins, Europe and America is going to gang up on Russia; if Ukraine loses, they are going to call in their debts and liquidate the remaining Ukrainian assets. The same would be true if Germany, Poland or any other country gets directly involved.) Therefore, countries that are far removed and with less chance of experiencing blowback (U.S. and Canada) are the loudest proponents of war, the rest of the zero-sum nations are divided into two groups: anti-China group (the Quad) and anti-Russia group (Europe). Europe wants war against Russia, sure they are shooting themselves in the foot economically now, but the prize of installing a puppet government in Russia or destroying it via balkanization is incomparable. They are also fully aware that the U.S. and Canada will backstab them if they fail, which is why they have the Ukrainians do the fighting.
Even Ukraine is acting according to their interests. In typical Western debt-trap diplomacy, most of the money Ukraine receives from the West are in form of loans, which needs to be paid back. A significant portion of Ukraine’s income is from transit fees for natural gas from Russia. Since Russia isn’t renewing the contract with Ukraine after the current one expires in 2024; given their less than cordial relationship, there is no way Russia is bailing Ukraine out of their financial mess they got themselves into. So faced with loans they cannot pay off, Ukraine resorted to extortion, threatening the safety of Russia citizen by stationing NATO missiles, or even nuclear weapons within its borders which resulted in the situation we see today.
In summary:
– Europe wants war against Russia since they view Russia’s resources are key to their ascendency.
– The Quad wants war against China since they believe that thee only way they can rise is for China to fall. (I can write about this when the next move against China occurs)
– America and Canada want Europe to fight against Russia and the Quad to fight against China. As long as there is a loser, they win.
– Russia is in an existential struggle against Europe, they have no issues with destroying the EU if it secures their survival.
– China is supporting Russia because they are reliable a trading partner but also because security of their northern border is vital to BRI. That said, they rather Russia not destroy Europe and have their trillion-yuan trade route lead to a war-ravaged wasteland.
Posted by: Sid Victor Cattoni | Mar 3 2022 17:35 utc | 161
Idiocrates 150,
I’m sure the moderator will forgive us our transgressions, in the name of furthering the critical thinking abilities of the world.
It’s not good enough to contradict what I wrote with zero argument and the mere provision of a link that does not directly address what I wrote that you subsequently quoted. That’s not good enough is it?
What point exactly are you making? What is the counterargument?
I’m all ears.
Posted by: reante | Mar 3 2022 17:36 utc | 162
Posted by: nook | Mar 3 2022 17:32 utc | 160
I have noticed this at times as well. Southfront is useful if you want a one-stop shop for video/media you are not going to be able to access via any corporate outlet, but usually all that video can also be found with more work via twitter, telegram, telesur, etc.
The analysis I have found tends toward the alarmist, which I suspect is an attention-getting device.
Posted by: WJ | Mar 3 2022 17:37 utc | 163
I don’t think we can judge how well the Russians are doing in the military campaign because we do not know what their exact goals are. It isn’t clear, for example, whether they intend to scour the whole country or not; I would imagine, presumably not, but what do I know? Persons who are used to the history of maneuver warfare assume it is about taking and holding territory like oil spots on a map, but that is not necessarily applicable here.
Russia cannot at all be defeated in the classical sense because of its nuclear arsenal, which alone gave Putin the confidence to carry out the invasion, just as the United States has confidently invaded so many places, because it is invulnerable to conventional warfare. The US power elite just hates that Russia has parity in this respect, so they bite their hands in rage and jump up and down like a herd of baboons, because Russia is just as invulnerable as the US, militarily. Meanwhile, the danger of nuclear war is acute, and let there be no mistake that a full-scale nuclear exchange, even limited to the territory of the two nuclear superpowers, would end in the extinction of the human race.
So Russia does not need to take all of Ukraine or even a major part of it. Anywhere it sits there, it cannot be dislodged, though it may pay a price for staying. So it is not in the interests of the Ukrainians to try to completely exclude Russia and the Russians, for they will have to live with them, unless no one lives. Likewise, it is not in the interests of the US/NATO to continue with the confrontationism. In the short run, their stupid, arrogant aggressiveness may produce a blowback of economic catastrophe in their countries with unpredicatable consequences. But even if they try to turn Ukraine into another Afghanistan for the Russians, they simple can’t get Russia, because they can never get any Russian government to give up its nuclear parity, the Great Equalizer, so they are simply checkmated. No wonder they are so full of rage. And this nuclear fact has to be thrown back into their faces at every opportunity, and the public should in particular be made aware of their danger.
Thus, there are no ethical considerations when it comes to the politics of nuclear annihilation, only practicalities and pragmatism. It doesn’t even matter who is right. The only salvation is in a conversion to cooperativism and understanding with the other, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for that.
Posted by: Cabe | Mar 3 2022 17:37 utc | 164
@Arch Bungle #155
Scott Ritter said, on 2/25 or 2/26, that the Russian military performed poorly in Georgia in 2008. It was not until the heavy armor was deployed that Georgia got steamrolled.
Ritter then says that this was a wakeup call for the Russian military – and that (in his opinion) they have resolved the poor performance demonstrated then.
But ultimately it doesn’t matter what anyone outside of Ukraine thinks.
We’ll know in the next week or 2 what reality is.
Posted by: c1ue | Mar 3 2022 17:39 utc | 165
All these weapons and mercs flowing in…
Putin needs to get back on tv and remind everyone one last time. Mobb Deep style so they understand:
“You make the wrong moves and you will get touched
You put your whole army against my team I guarantee itll be your very last time breathing”
Posted by: comandante | Mar 3 2022 17:42 utc | 167
karlof1 156,
Indeed, if the USSA was energy independent the petrodollar wouldn’t have come into existence in the first place.
Empires are empires precisely because they are net energy importers. Empires are thermodynamic sinks.
Posted by: reante | Mar 3 2022 17:43 utc | 168
General Konashenkov asks prospective mercenaries to consider their well being before coming to Ukraine:
https://youtu.be/fOQEjq3WDT4
He makes clear that mercenaries will not be considered subject to the laws of war.
How nice of him.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 3 2022 17:43 utc | 169
What should be nationalized is ALL currently being closed Western facilities and plants
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Mar 3 2022 17:34 utc | 161
Factories, aircrafts – not so much nationalized, how forcefully purchased for the Russia’s Central Bank’s assets stolen by West.
Though it is all rumours yet.
Posted by: Arioch | Mar 3 2022 17:47 utc | 170
@reante | 163
It’s not good enough to contradict what I wrote with zero argument and the mere provision of a link that does not directly address what I wrote that you subsequently quoted.
Agreed, my bad.
You wrote that past and future exist and the present does not. The delayed choice experiment (which I believe has been confirmed) shows that a ‘history’ (of the photon) is retro-actively applied once you actually observe it (collapse its wave function). Thus it can be argued that the past does not exist.
The future obviously does not exist. If it did you would need to believe the MSM when they say they know what Putin wants.
Regarding the present: you cannot deny that it exists because I am here and you are there.
Some (e.g. Stuart Kauffman) argue that that wave function and its waving probabilities is actually (ontologically) real. Some (e.g Lee Smolin) argue that time is absolute. His arguments are hard to refute at my level of knowledge and experience.
I think it is fair to say that we just do not know the answers to the fundamental questions of what reality (time, space etc) is. I suggest that anyone who says they know are not entirely truthful.
Posted by: Idiocrates | Mar 3 2022 17:49 utc | 171
People who think that if Putin wins the battle of Ukraine he will win the war, are simply infantile in their analysis. WWIII (Cold War I) lasted for 40 years and destroyed the Soviet Union and left Russia a basket case. Russia has the strategic depth necessary to conduct this war only for as long as the CCP stand with him. It took the Soviet Union nearly a decade to pacify Poland after WWII. Russians will be dying in the Ukraine for a very long time I believe. The hubris which has convinced the Russian ruling class of their moral and intellectual superiority will go the way of German hubris and Japanese paranoia. I suspect many of Russia oligarchs are looking forward to losing the war and being reintegrated into the western ruling elite–I am certain they do not want to be toadies to some slant eyed commie, or a raghead ayatollah. I mean it is obvious on this site that you all are as racist as the next white guy–you think Russia oligarchs are different?
Posted by: wobblie | Mar 3 2022 17:50 utc | 172
I recommend this twitter feed:
“Most fascinating thing about the Ukraine war is the sheer number of top strategic thinkers who warned for years that it was coming if we continued down the same path.
No-one listened to them and here we are.
Small compilation 🧵 of these warnings, from Kissinger to Mearsheimer”.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1498491107902062592
Posted by: JB | Mar 3 2022 17:55 utc | 173
Welcome to the swamp, trolls. America wins, again. China shits bric. (Or: as above, within a week we are most toast! That would be a vain folly, no?). Poor earth, poor people. Quantum mechanics and relativity are real. Nothing else is interesting except existence. Love
Posted by: Comrade A | Mar 3 2022 17:57 utc | 174
south front seems to be switching sides, to me it sees complete propaganda, https://southfront.org/how-ukraine-sank-russian-large-landing-ship-near-odessa-on-march-2-2022/
@wobblie | 173
Russia has the strategic depth necessary to conduct this war only for as long as the CCP stand with him […] The hubris which has convinced the Russian ruling class of their moral and intellectual superiority will go the way of German hubris and Japanese paranoia.
Did you think of that yourself or did you hear it from somewhere?
Clearly you know nothing about Russia, or Poland for that matter, but yet you speak so authoritatively. To me this means you’ve swallowed too much MSM…the whole world is not like you (think it is). Stop projecting.
Posted by: Idiocrates | Mar 3 2022 17:59 utc | 176
wobblie | Mar 3 2022 17:50 utc | 173
Calm down, troll. Nobody really knows what Putin is thinking, especially you. He is not going to commit Russia to pacifying west of Ukraine, far from it.
Posted by: Boo | Mar 3 2022 18:02 utc | 177
Russian commanders are not that fools or incompetent or retards to allow such losses, since Russians keep the blanket of secrecy, its hard to verify, Russians seem to be too cautious to seize the momentum ,
Press release from the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication (Arcom):
“The Council of the European Union adopted on March 1 new economic sanctions against the Russian Federation by amending Regulation 833/2014 of July 31, 2014. In particular, these measures are intended to suspend the broadcasting by any means of content from RT and Sputnik in all European Union countries.
These decisions, which in particular have the effect of suspending the convention and distribution of RT France, are of direct and immediate application by all operators concerned as of today.”
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
New economic sanctions !
Posted by: Leuk | Mar 3 2022 18:07 utc | 179
Paul Craig Roberts is spot on, can’t be any better,https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/03/03/ukraine-update-4/
Ukraine was working on building nukes:
“Naryshkin noted that Ukraine has preserved technical potential to create nuclear armaments and that this is higher than those of Iran and North Korea.
“‘Not only did [Russia] know about this, but the Americans also did. At the same time, not only did they not interfere in their plans, but [they] were also ready, as they say, to lend a helping hand to the Ukrainians, apparently hoping that Ukrainian nukes would be aimed not to the west, but to the east’.”
So, we have evidence of nuke construction and bioweapon development and delivery development. Two existential threats being driven by the Outlaw US Empire’s Neo-Nazi allies. I’m sure Russia realizes it’s #1 and most genuine enemy is the Outlaw US Empire with its core located in the DC Beltway and NYC.
Also a critical point I made when I provided the translation of Lavrov’s Al Jazeera interview is located at its end where Lavrov again notes, “their absolute unreliability and complete inability to negotiate,” and a few paragraphs later notes the recent agreement about the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war, which led me to ask how can the West be believed to honor that commitment when it’s “absolutely unreliable” and not agreement capable?
If you would never trust Hitler, than why place any trust in the Outlaw US Empire!?
@karlof1 | 182
Thanks for that.
I also wondered why bother with statements of not starting nuclear war. I guess I realized that they are just empty words, and relaxed.
Both the Empire of Lies and the Russians have updated their doctrines which now allow the option of a first strike.
There are no truths here, no laws, just force.
Posted by: Idiocrates | Mar 3 2022 18:19 utc | 182
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from today will travel around Europe for at least the next five days, making sure that the USA’s minion states toe-the-line on the Russian narrative.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 3 2022 18:21 utc | 183
@Posted by: AB17 | Mar 3 2022 16:53 utc | 130
“India is figuring out how to establish a rupee payment mechanism for trade with Russia, independent from SWIFT system, to soften the blow of Western sanctions. Biden Administration looking whether to apply or waive sanctions on India under ‘countering America’s adversaries through sanctions Act’ (CAATSA): US diplomat”
Well, that would kill the “QUAD” (US, India, Japan, Australia) aimed at China. When you escalate to force people to take sides you better be sure that they will pick your side. India’s good relations with Russia go back many, many decades – including the USSR help during the East Pakistan war to stop UK/USA interference. These memories go deep.
When I was in my early teens, a few generations ago, I would collect a monthly issue of “The World At War” about WW2 which you could then put in binders. An amazingly good military history of WW2. Also, a time with no mobile phones, internet, twitter, fbook etc. and four channels on the British television (quality was infinitely better than all the channels available now, such as “Yes Minister”). I would also listen to the cricket in India/Pakistan/Australia/New Zealand with a short-wave radio in the middle of the night. We understood that things take time, an understanding that some of the commentators here need. Russia is doing an amazing job given the number of troops used and the number of DAYS that they have been utilized for.
The vast majority of Ukraine’s good and dedicated soldiers (i.e. right wing and nazi nutters who want to die for the glorious cause) are trapped in Mariupol and the Donbass pocket. They have to be destroyed so they don’t provide a problem for the Russian rear. That takes resources and time. At the same time, the forces from Crimea have fought northwards (one part looks like it will head for the Moldovan border to cut off the Odessa region) and on the Kiev front there has been a strike southwards. If these two meet up 2/3rds of Ukraine will become completely surrounded with only the Nazi West left for mercenaries and new arms to go into. But that will be an area that will be a free fire zone for Russian aircraft and artillery fire – a “Turkey Shoot” of new supplies and foreign mercenaries.
Below is the guy who is providing the best maps and coverage (I apologize for forgetting who posted the links, but thank you!). To get English (or other) auto-generated subtitles go to the widget icon and select “subtitles Russian-autogenerated”, then go to the icon again and you will get the option for other auto-generated subtitles to pick from a list of languages. Not perfect, quite funny mistranslations in some cases, but it does the job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg6I4wFVxFQ
Most wars are “stop-start”, bursts of activity followed by consolidation then another burst of activity. Russia is consolidating and putting in significantly more troops, so we should get an activity burst soon. Perhaps also an amphibious landing in Odessa soon, so some of the murdering arsonists can be dealt with quickly! At some point, the Western MSM will have to stop lying and admit that Russia is successful. The MSM can change on a dime and memory hole their previous coverage.
@Leuk | 180
New economic sanctions !
They are starting to look like comic sanctions.
Posted by: Idiocrates | Mar 3 2022 18:23 utc | 186
Extract from the decision of the Council of the EU, 1 March 2022 :
In view of the gravity of the situation, and in response to Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine, it is necessary, consistent with the fundamental rights and freedoms recognised in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular with the right to freedom of expression and information as recognised in Article 11 thereof, to introduce further restrictive measures to urgently suspend the broadcasting activities of such media outlets in the Union, or directed at the Union.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32022D0351&from=FR
Posted by: Leuk | Mar 3 2022 18:25 utc | 187
@77 Sushi
Russia has crapped 20% VAT on gold purchases so the citizens can use it as a store of wealth.
Posted by: TJ | Mar 3 2022 18:27 utc | 188
TASS recaps Lavrov’s major points from today’s press conference:
“He emphasized that Moscow was confident it was doing the right thing in Ukraine, pointed out that the current developments weren’t a Hollywood action movie ‘where there is an absolute evil and an absolute good,’ and stressed that thoughts of a nuclear war ‘are circling in the heads’ of Western politicians but not Russian ones.”
And there’s more, but I’ll add just this bit:
“The US now dominates Europe like Napoleon and Hitler tried to do in their time. ‘You know, I have comparisons to make: at some point, Napoleon and Hitler tried to subjugate Europe. Now it is dominated by the US,’ Lavrov noted. ‘It is clear that NATO has no questions about it, and the EU knows its place.'”
I don’t think truer words about the “relationship” between Europe and the Outlaw US Empire have ever been spoken so frankly, and that situation’s existed since 1945.
Banning of RT & Sputniknews. From the decision of the Council of the EU, 1 March 2022:
In view of the gravity of the situation, and in response to Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine, it is necessary, consistent with the fundamental rights and freedoms recognised in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in particular with the right to freedom of expression and information as recognised in Article 11 thereof, to introduce further restrictive measures to urgently suspend the broadcasting activities of such media outlets in the Union, or directed at the Union(…)
Posted by: Leuk | Mar 3 2022 18:36 utc | 190
Posted by: smerch | Mar 3 2022 17:58 utc | 176
This is my favourite part:
”the ship had 600 battle tanks on board. This is not a joke, everyone can check this information in social media.”
Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Mar 3 2022 18:51 utc | 191
HREF=“https://www.rferl.org/amp/30388461.html”
2 years ago Radio Free Europe had issues with neo-Nazis and far right groups in Ukraine. They sure aren’t saying this today… Wonder what changed? France, Germany, US, EU all says that no white nationalist neo-Nazis exist in Ukraine and haven’t existed… So how do they explain this piece, and MANY others just like it, including from the European Union itself
Posted by: Virgo Atheist | Mar 3 2022 18:53 utc | 192
https://www.rferl.org/a/30388461.html
2 years ago Radio Free Europe had issues with neo-Nazis and far right groups in Ukraine. They sure aren’t saying this today… Wonder what changed? France, Germany, US, EU all says that no white nationalist neo-Nazis exist in Ukraine and haven’t existed… So how do they explain this piece, and MANY others just like it, including from the European Union itself
Posted by: Virgo Atheist | Mar 3 2022 18:55 utc | 193
CBC follies:
There’s a flood of disinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here’s who’s sorting it out
Feb 27
…
Russia’s narrative
Disinformation disguised as news about the conflict has proliferated via Telegram accounts.
On Thursday, one Russian-language Telegram account, SCEPTIK, claimed that 82 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to Russia at Snake Island — a remote, rocky island that sits in the Black Sea — and were signing papers, stating their refusal to continue participating in military action.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were 13 border patrol officers at the outpost, and that they died after refusing to surrender. He said all 13 would be posthumously awarded the title “hero of Ukraine.”
On Saturday, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine contradicted Zelensky by saying in a Facebook post that it believed the soldiers were actually alive. On Monday, the Ukrainian navy also said in a separate Facebook post that the guards were alive.
Except, oops, they had to add the last paragraph on Feb 28. Sort of changes the message of the whole article. Tells us what CBC means by “disinformation”.
Posted by: Keith McClary | Mar 3 2022 18:56 utc | 194
Before and during WWII, Banderites’s slogan was “Fight against Judeo-Bolsheviks!” After WWII, Banderites relocated to Canada and the slogan became “Fight against Russians!”
The Jewish community of Canada and the US have allowed Canadian Banderites to celebrate Nazism unmolested, for decades. A progeny of a prominent Nazi collaborator Chritsya Freeland, a darling of US Ziocons, has become a Deputy of Justin Trudeau.
After the Maidan coup, the Canadian government sent the Canadian military to Ukraine to train the self-proclaimed Nazi Azov Battalion (Canadians felt embarrassed). The usual noise about ‘antisemitism’ was hushed up, a clear sign that the Nazi parades and the training of the Ukrainian Nazis against Russia were “good for Jews.”
Neither Russians nor Ukrainians are dear to Ziocons; rather the Ziocons – these Blinkers, Kagans, Sullivan, et al. – want these two brotherly peoples to eliminate each other. Purim is coming.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/far-right-extremists-in-ukrainian-military-bragged-about-canadian-training-report-says-1.5631304
https://banderalobby.substack.com/p/the-canadian-bandera-network?s=r
“The term Banderites derives from the name of Stepan Bandera (1909-1959), head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists that formed in 1929 as an amalgamation of movements including the Union of Ukrainian Fascists.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banderites
Posted by: Cerena | Mar 3 2022 18:58 utc | 195
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 3 2022 17:25 utc | 152
Thanks for this, karlof1, and also your posts on b’s previous thread. The CIA is responsible for so many warcrimes since I have lived in the US. I have the book “Legacy of Ashes” which deals mainly with operations vs. Cuba, so to learn they were already operating earlier with respect to Ukraine is not a surprise. No wonder Eisenhower gave his famous warning speech about the military/industrial complex only as he was leaving office. He was probably already less than free during his presidency.
All of US history books need to be re-written. In the best of future times we will be reading your works, I am sure. What I am coming to terms with since last night is how Ukraine was already well entrenched in Nazi-style US activities back into the ’90’s. We are looking at much more than those brigades whose terror tactics we saw after Maidan. And as you say, Putin would have known so much before he decided to act – and hopefully used his knowledge to make preparation long before we even started admiring his speeches. He has been incredibly patient.
Posted by: juliania | Mar 3 2022 19:01 utc | 196
Lots of people above second guessing the Russian Military. Putin is not the military – he will take into account professional advice. Also, he is not a monolithic figure – Russia is not one man. The guys in the Russian Armed Forces have been gaming such events a s a Ukrainian invasion for years. they have all the history of WWII to lean on, plus Georgia, syria, since then. They are not beginners in war planning. Lets leave them to get on with it.
Posted by: Jams O’Donnell | Mar 3 2022 19:03 utc | 197
@Posted by: wobblie | Mar 3 2022 17:50 utc | 173
The Cold War did not destroy the Soviet Union, a “fact” that so many Westerners want to believe, it was the internal corruption that seeped into the system and exploded under Brezhnev, combined with the utter reckless stupidity of Gorbachev and the inability to move from extensive economic development to intensive economic development. Then the gangster-capitalism of the 1990s and US$10 oil prices nearly finished the job.
The world is VERY different now, with the colossus that is now China working beneficially with Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America. Russia protects China’s land borders, helps keep Central Asia under control, provides much military knowledge, brings its relationship with India to help offset India/China differences, and provides a safe source of fossil fuels. China would be committing suicide if it doesn’t help Russia, and the conflict in Europe helps undermine the “Asia Pivot” of US aggression.
The Russian elites know that their best option is as a junior partner to China, the other is to watch their nation be plundered and destroyed. The US has shown this reality many times. Wars also tends to increase nationalist feelings and a “circle the wagons” mentality. Those elites will also greatly benefit from sky-high oil, gas, other raw material, and food prices. They may also get to feast on the ill-gotten gains of the Ukrainian oligarchs, plus foreign investments in Russia.
Some books if you want to properly understand modern Russia and Ukraine:
The collapse of the Soviet Union
– Crump, T. (2014). Brezhnev and the Decline of the Soviet Union. [kindle version]. Routledge.
– Ermolaev, S. (2017). The Formation and Evolution of the Soviet Union’s Oil and Gas Dependence. (Carnegie Endowment For International Peace Working Paper). Carnegie Endowment For International Piece.
– Stephen S. Cohen, The Tunnel at a the End of the Light
– Kotkin, S. (2001). Armageddon Averted The Soviet Collapse 1970-2000. [kindle version]. Oxford University Press.
– Kotkin, S. (2009). Uncivil Society 1989 And The Implosion Of The Communist Establishment. The Modern Library.
Russia and the Ukraine now:
– Ukraine over the Edge: Gordon M. Hahn
– Ukraine and the Empire of Capital, Yuliya Yurchenko
– Russia’s Path from Gorbachev to Putin: David M. Kotz and Fred Weir
– Russia under Yeltsin and Putin, Boris Kagalitsky
– Vladimir Putin and the Evolution of Russian Foreign Policy, Bobo Lo
– Failed Crusade, Stephen F. Cohen
– The Priratization of Russia, Marshall I. Goldman
The level of propaganda reminds me of what was used against Yugoslavia:
– The Media and the Kosovo Crisis: Philip Hammond and Edward S. Herman
– To Kill A Nation: Michael Parenti
Stated on z/h and southfront that west has siezed russian assets – currency reserves and gold it is claimed.
Feel sure that could be deemed act of war – would be inclined to seize something as compensation.
Posted by: jared | Mar 3 2022 19:03 utc | 199
Please stop with the BigLie that the Outlaw US Empire is oil independent. It most certainly is not and hasn’t been for many decades.
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 3 2022 17:31 utc | 156
Karlof1. you are correct in that the US of A is not oil independent now. However, the ScottofDallas point, the US of A can be. Issue is that the constant change over of administrations and priorities, they go from boom to bust in terms of oil exploration and drilling/removing/producing crude oil. There is potential, between US and Canada with known reserves they could be net exporter of oil for years, has they had been the prior 4 to 5 years.
As usual, it is politics and the little men behind the curtains that muck up everything for everyone, no matter what country you are in at the moment.
Posted by: drshivago | Mar 3 2022 19:04 utc | 200