RT EuromaidanPress: Russia cancels MAKS 2023, its premier international air show, probably due to security concerns and the risk of reputational damage -“
further proof of what a success this Special Military Operation has been.

Posted by: Noam A. Larkey | Jul 2 2023 8:20 utc | 304

French Military makes veiled threat to Macron for possible coup
There are unconfirmed reports that certain senior and serving french military commanders have delivered an ultimatum to Macron. Restore order within 48 hours or they will.
Posted by: France is fucked | Jul 2 2023 8:21 utc | 313
I heard that France made a deal with China to settle in Yuan. Coincidence?

Posted by: Tim | Jul 2 2023 8:27 utc | 306

Posted by: The Dolphin | Jul 2 2023 6:02 utc | 292
The point of Sun Tzu is not weaponry. It is men, morale, thinking.
Yes, weapons may change, but in war, you want to give yourself every advantage, and take hold of every disadvantage of the enemy.
All that technology might be great if it gives an edge over your foe, but if it is peer warfare, then you must find the edge elsewhere.
Also, if you think the SMO was the beginning of Sun Tzu talk, then you haven’t paid attention to soviet and russian intelligence training, it is a corr part of it.

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2023 8:36 utc | 308

The BBC calls them “riots” im France. If they were happening in russia, beijing, hong kong or venezuela, the BBC wd call them “protests”

Posted by: HERMIUS | Jul 2 2023 8:42 utc | 310

Posted by: The Dolphin | Jul 2 2023 6:02 utc | 292
Better put that I managed. When strategising, all analogies and abstractions must be judge on predictive merit, there is no other reason to entertain them.
I wonder if “Art of War 2023 Edition” encourages readers to appreciate the element of armed (but unmanned) occupation inherent in bringing an area under remote fire control, or notes that it is a fool indeed who hears the words “tripwire force” and imagines warm bodies, not expendable drones?

Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 2 2023 8:58 utc | 312

To be clear, are you claiming that RF couldn’t realistically clear and maintain a buffer zone on the UA side of the river from ZNPP, ordering a civilian evacuation and then policing the area drone surveillance backed up by artillery, rocket artillery, kamikaze drones, Gerans, remote mine laying etc, all things we know they could do with relative ease?
Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 2 2023 7:52 utc | 302
“ideas guy” says they can create a buffer zone on the right side of the river with no troops, and evacuation orders, (no troops though)
He then says Russia could just make a no-go zone with drones and missiles and artillery, and this would be with “relative ease”. That’s what “ideas guys” always say. No real experience in the matter, but they think its easy.
Worse is the know-it-all-know-nothing, who thinks he knows better then men with decades of professional military and supply experience i. Their own country, with their own armed forced. The arrogance.
Your plan was, and is, a bunch of vacuous, generic bull shit, based on the supposition Ukraine can’t fire back.
If its so “relatively easy”, you draw up the plans, and send them to Russia. And before I hear one more stupid generic ideas guy idea from you, you can start by estimating how big, in square kilometers, you believe this buffer zone would have to be.. including where is starts and ends on the Dneiper, (we’ll call that the x-axis). and how deep into Dinepropetrovsk Oblast this buffer zone will need to extend, (we’ll call that the y-axis). I would then like you to lay out how many artillery, and what type of MLRSs you want stationed from the left bank, what front you desire to pull these weapons from to make your buffer zone, as well as how many recon drones you think would be necessary to keep this area under 24 hour surveillance.
You have offered generic advice, but then acted like a generic reply was not good enough, So no more fucking around. Give specifics to your plan, which you should be able to do with, as you say, “relative ease”, and then I will respond to crotiques of the specifics you give. But if you just want to make broad generalizations, and then cry when nobody can give specifics in retort, find somebody else to listen to your know-nothing-know-it-all-ideas-guy ideas about how this war should be fought.

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2023 9:03 utc | 314

21,000 Wagner mercenaries killed in Ukraine, says who?
I heard Scott Ritter say that on “Redacted” yesterday. He really unloaded on Prigozhin and his business

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jul 2 2023 9:04 utc | 316

Posted by: Eighthman | Jul 2 2023 0:55 utc | 218
“withdrawing savings” does not necessarily mean drawing cash……..anyway you need advance notice at a building society to draw above a nominal sum for cheques to be cut at head office…….
It probably means people – getting very low interest on deposits because banks have not increased deposit rates – are paying off higher rate debt by transferring funds

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jul 2 2023 9:07 utc | 318

Posted by: Scuppers | Jul 2 2023 7:13 utc | 296
Although the VTA have benefited from more generous funding, they still only have 20% of their Cold-War the airlift capability. In the Centre-2019 exercises they used 71 Il-76’s to drop nearly 3K troops, which whilst impressive is a fraction of what we be required to achieve an air assault operation with real strategic impacts. If landing at captured airfields they possibly could surge to dropping and supporting a divisions worth of troops, but their fleet is made up of ageing platforms that are in some say an already parlous state. Additionally, massive support from other forces (air, artillery, ISR etc)) would be needed for SEAD and CAS, which are already taxed committed in maintaining the status quo; furthermore, such an assault would have to be in conjunction with a major armoured thrust to relieve the original LZ’s, which itself would require support, to succeed.
So, whilst an operation is feasible, it’s not a practical or efficient use of the forces required, the two watchwords of the SMO. The VDV, for now, are far more effective in a ground role, especially as QRF’s and fire brigades. The aviation and artillery assets are of more use in their current role, than being re-tasked to support a drop and the ISR force-multiplier, itself multiplied by a largely static front would be compromised.
That’s not even taking into account the threats posed by defenders equipped with ULR artillery systems, remote-mining, effective localised AD and ISR, distributed down to platoon level and surviving SAM systems with 200 km EZ’s.
To conclude, their maybe a time for the VDV to operate in the role they were initially designed for; however, the current battlefield cycle and it’s operational requirements dictate that the assets that would have to be committed, for such an operation to succeed, are best used in their current deployments and roles.

Posted by: Milites | Jul 2 2023 9:15 utc | 320

A rally was held in Kiev demanding to increase the number of places in cemeteries and the total number of cemeteries in Ukraine.
CC
For those who do not understand the reasons for the rallies demanding the urgent creation of new cemeteries. In Kharkov, as a result of the AFU offensive, there were no places in the existing cemeteries. Therefore, the issue of creating new cemeteries outside the city is being resolved now and they will try to expand existing cemeteries.
The situation is the same in a number of other cities.
And it’s only June that’s over yet…
CC

Posted by: Citan | Jul 2 2023 9:23 utc | 322

Posted by: Scuppers | Jul 2 2023 7:13 utc | 296
Hopefully true.

Posted by: Greg Galloway | Jul 2 2023 9:36 utc | 324

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2023 9:03 utc | 322
On evacuation without troops, in the wake of Darya Dugins’s assassination, the highways of Kiev were thronged with Ukrainians rushing to get out from under the barrage they assumed coming. You’ve either forgotten this telling incident of failed to notice the insight it provided.
No argument from authority, please, we’re not suckups here, nor scuzzy little creeps trying to hustle promotion from demonstrable incompetents.
I don’t need to specify exact systems, whatever’s got the range at an affordable price, preference for Gerans, however, they are excellent value for money. How much cost is in the men & materiel already deployed, what are the cost implications of a failed defense of the ZNPP complex.
On volume of drone surveillance, you must be familiar with the concept of clearing an area and then moving your LINE forward? Even overlooked pockets would be cut off for new supplies and would be noticed eventually anyway.
I’m allowed to hypothesis the use of remotely delivered mines, right, because that would be an excellent way to lock up a buffer zone and free up resources for hotter areas.
Truth of is that there’s no buffer zone because of political decisions, not military-technical considerations, it would involve forcing all civilians out and this seems to be a proscribed strategy. The logical consequence is that UA forces can hide within ongoing civilian life giving enough cover to prepare a large force of men & material in the vicinity of the plant.
I think we’re taking a dislike of each other here so I will ask you, kindly, to consider the implications of the fact and manner of Kakhovka Dam being lost. These so-and-so-knows-best arguments might have been taken at face value before that but not after, if they can fail so pitifully in that case we are entitled to question their strategy at Zap.
Posted by: Greg Galloway | Jul 2 2023 9:15 utc | 329
Russia needs someone, at least, that is capable of being wise before the fact about strategy like the defense of a hydroelectric or nuclear power plant. Let’s hope for a better performance at Zap.
If you think I’m a tard, have at it, but don’t let that blind you to an objective assessment of the “professionals”.

Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 2 2023 9:47 utc | 326

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2023 8:36 utc | 316
>>>The point of Sun Tzu is not weaponry. It is men, morale, thinking.
Only partly true. He also talks much about strategies and tactics which OBVIOUSLY INCLUDES geography and weaponry. “A river is a barrier” was meant by him as relevant to ground armies of that time. To quote it now, here, re Ukraine, is mindless waffle.
>>>Yes, weapons may change, but in war, you want to give yourself every advantage, and take hold of every disadvantage of the enemy.
Yes, so what? You’re strawmanning me in defence of your own ego.
>>> All that technology might be great if it gives an edge over your foe, but if it is peer warfare, then you must find the edge elsewhere.
Then why did the OP quote something ancient and specifically irrelevant? Are you related? Btw, RF vs the AFU-NATO is *not* exactly peer warfare … in case you hadn’t noticed.
>>>Also, if you think the SMO was the beginning of Sun Tzu talk, then you haven’t paid attention to soviet and russian intelligence training, it is a core part of it.
I am fully aware that ALL MILITARY HISTORY is studied for war theory. I was talking about THE MASSIVE increase since Feb 2022 by all the bedroom generals and wargame geeks who feign battle wisdom by quoting a 2500 year old Chinaman. I first read Art of War some 45 years ago when studying Taoist philosophy. So get off ya high horse. Just a reminder, UWDude — in forums like this you never know who you are talking to. So be careful of talking down.
Finally, SunTzu does not need YOUR defence, little boy, nor do I need you trying to tell me what I (or SunTzu) meant.

Posted by: The Dolphin | Jul 2 2023 9:48 utc | 328

Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 2 2023 8:42 utc | 317
I will say this once, after which I will not entertain your bullshit any further:
You are departing from the path of rationality.
The are both “peacetime” figures, this is a high intensity armed conflict against a proxy force back by peer adversaries.
BULLSHIT.
Neither are peace time figures. Both were active figures during the following conflicts and crises:
1. The fall of the Soviet Union.
2. First Chechen War
3. 2nd chechen war
4. Georgia 2008
5. Syrian Conflict
6. Donbas Conflict 2014
Capische?
If Gerasimov’s talent is as a military theorist / futurist then, regardless of his pretensions, that is what, and all, he should be.
But he is not merely “military theorist / futurist”.
He has been a rank and file soldier since the USSR.
Not only has he seen the battlefield but shaped it.
You are ignorant.
Moskva and a trail of avoidable errors from which they insist on learning after the fact,
Wake up, pollyanna.
This is war.
At some point all the errors you avoid from one direction catch up with you in another.
The trick is whether you can operate in such away that on balance you win despite the failures.
Russia lost one vessel.
Nothing more after that.
Ukraine lost it’s entire navy and airforce.
Not bad, Mr. Gerasimov. Not bad at all …
those fools lost Kakhovka HPP and responded with nothing more than an embarrassed silence,
They didn’t lose anything worthwhile.
The only “embarrassed silence” was in your head, friend because I can assure you men like Gerasimov and Shoigu don’t waste time feeling embarrassed.
Men like these keep cold, focused and get on with the job of winning a war.
Not one comment on the merits of their own actions, and they should know.
Again, professionals get on with the job, and don’t waste time wringing their hands and wailing.
That’s an Anglo and French thing.
It should be no surprise that a shooting war reveals those who are merely schemers, pigeons or worse.
Yeah, for sure./s
ZNPP has been in the balance from the moment UA started taking pot shots at it, do bear that in mind as things go forward.
Again, wake up: Every nuclear facility in Ukraine has been in the balance since NATO decided to provoke Russia into war.
If there’s anyone with the chops to deal with it. it’s going to be Shoigu , Gerasimov and Putin.
Let me repeat again:
Nobody on the planet is more qualified than Gerasimov and Shoigu to deal with the ZNPP issue.
And if they fail to deal with it, then nobody else would have succeeded …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jul 2 2023 9:51 utc | 330

Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 2 2023 9:47 utc | 334
Russia needs someone, at least, that is capable of being wise before the fact about strategy like the defense of a hydroelectric or nuclear power plant. Let’s hope for a better performance at Zap.
Put forward a few names please.
If you think I’m a tard, have at it, but don’t let that blind you to an objective assessment of the “professionals”.
Seriously? You think your assessment is objective?
What are your assessment criteria. List them in detail.
(By the way, you sound a lot like that cunt Zanon)

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jul 2 2023 9:56 utc | 332

Posted by: English Outsider | Jul 1 2023 17:43 utc | 27
I think English Outsider has it right:peace will come only when the Ukrainians get rid of the Zelensky clique. Not before and certainly not with the current crop of brain dead (where did I hear that before) Nato oligarchs in power. An other possibility is shock therapy. Nato overplays its hand, sends a coalition of the willing into western Ukraine and tactical Russian nukes take them out. Yes, tactical nuclear warfare with Nato might be the cathartic moment that shuts the western alliance down for good.

Posted by: Stierlitz | Jul 2 2023 10:02 utc | 334

Posted by: Exile | Jul 2 2023 9:40 utc | 333
Re French riots: Nah, I don’t see them as causal or future-relevant to Ukraine. Just boiling over racial tensions. The angry young black delinquents are not being directly political. Started with one black car thief’s death by cop. Don’t see any rest till they’re all arrested. Did you know 1000 a day?!?! They don’t have any liberal or conservative voter support. Where ARE the ‘French Against the Ukraine War’? Still quaffing croissants by the Seine. The only change would Le Pen in 4 years.
A friend in France said the French’s primary life and voting concerns are their own precious social services. They’re ages BEHIND Germans in geopolitical caring. And the Germans are still deeply asleep. So, no. Cant see it.

Posted by: The Dolphin | Jul 2 2023 10:08 utc | 336

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:04 utc | 343
The SMO in the Ukraine (and against NATO) was planned a long time ago. Since I saw the green people in Krym, …
Indeed. That’s why Shoigu is there:

In 1991, Yeltsin appointed him head of the newly established Russian Rescue Corps, responsible for the rescue and disaster response system. The Rescue Corps replaced the previous Soviet civil defense system and soon absorbed the 20,000-strong militarized Civil Defense Troops of the Ministry of Defense, with Shoigu being appointed chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations, and Disaster Response. Civil Defense remained a quasi-military organization in continuation of Soviet practice and Shoigu was politically involved, such as an unsuccessful attempt to evacuate Russian-backed Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah in 1992 and the intended distribution of weapons from the Civil Defense stocks to Yeltsin supporters during the October 1993 coup. In keeping with the militarized nature of Russian civil defense, Shoigu received the rank of major general in 1993,

This is the kind of experience you need to to deal with the possibility of mass attacks on nuclear facilities …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jul 2 2023 10:13 utc | 338

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jul 2 2023 10:13 utc | 346
————–
Well, Wikipedia is useless. Its contents are rarely true. After all, it is a US American product. It doesn’t say that Biden is demented, does it?

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:18 utc | 340

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:18 utc | 348
Well, Khazarpedia is useless. Its contents are rarely true.
Of course it is mostly garbage but it can’t be *that* completely wrong.
At minimum it has some basic biographical facts in the general ballpark.
Digging deeper using legitimate sources would probably just support my argument further.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jul 2 2023 10:23 utc | 342

1) it is a race to the bottom – the question is who is going to hit the bottom first: the west or Russia.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jul 2 2023 10:23 utc | 351
————-
I suppose, you’ve never been in Russia, the Soviet one and the present RF. Russia is a self-sufficient country, the only one in the planet Earth. So, which one would survive, do you think?

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:29 utc | 344

Posted by: anon2020 | Jul 2 2023 10:29 utc | 353
——————–
It is quite funny to notice that lot of US Americans are arguing with each other, not even knowing Russia or the Russians…All those arguments are from the point of view of the US Americans.

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:32 utc | 346

I am fully aware that ALL MILITARY HISTORY is studied for war theory.
Posted by: The Dolphin | Jul 2 2023 9:48 utc | 336
I said Soviet and Russian intelligence, not war theory.

Posted by: UWDude | Jul 2 2023 10:34 utc | 348

Nato overplays its hand, sends a coalition of the willing into western Ukraine and tactical Russian nukes take them out. Yes, tactical nuclear warfare with Nato might be the cathartic moment that shuts the western alliance down for good.
Posted by: Stierlitz | Jul 2 2023 10:02 utc | 342
That would be the Poles and the Balts
Wouldnt it?
The German will be laughing all the way to the bank…

Posted by: Greg Galloway | Jul 2 2023 10:38 utc | 350

Prigozhin will, as some have suggested, “fall off a balcony
He’s a cook, I never heard that cooks fall off balconies so far.
Anyway.

Posted by: Greg Galloway | Jul 2 2023 10:42 utc | 352

It would be too hard to for a US American to fathom… 🙂
Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:39 utc | 359
so far you have been wrong on every point in your analysis about me (ad hominem is ostro’s weapon). anything else you want to add to the growing list since you have nothing else to do?

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jul 2 2023 10:45 utc | 354

Nato overplays its hand, sends a coalition of the willing into western Ukraine and tactical Russian nukes take them out.
Posted by: Stierlitz | Jul 2 2023 10:02 utc | 342
———————-
NATO is nothing, when it comes to fight a real force. It was tough fighting poorer, weaker countries, and even there, NATO got kicked out, latest in August 2020.
If push comes to shove, NATO will disintegrate at the first signof open war against Russia. Even to barking Baltics and Poland will break out. They maybe highly Russophobic, but no one there wants to die for their politicos. They’d rather get rid of the politicos, than fight a war. Imagine the little Estonia with 1.3 million inhabitants fighting Russia, a country with ~22% Russians.

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:46 utc | 356

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jul 2 2023 10:49 utc | 365
————
A Greek with a British passport? A guy, who made the Oath of Allegiance to the dead Queen?

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 10:52 utc | 358

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jul 2 2023 8:07 utc | 305
“Finally McGovern refers to the military balance! He should have led with that. As I’ve said repeatedly, anyone who understands the military balance between Russia and Ukraine and further to NATO immediately understands that it’s a physical impossibility for Ukraine – with or without NATO support – to win the conflict.”
But how long can Ukraine, with the West support delay the Russian win? Years? So far, Russia doesn’t even have control of “all” of Russia that they recently added.

Posted by: Tim2 | Jul 2 2023 10:56 utc | 360

As French violence – powered by US weapons from Ukraine
Posted by: unimperator | Jul 2 2023 10:56 utc | 369
interesting hint. this is what budanov meant? and the us is really intent on destroying europe?

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jul 2 2023 10:59 utc | 362

The Ukrainian authorities are going to leave the cities of Sumy and Kharkov. This was announced on the morning of July 1 by the Russian voenkor Alexander Sladkov on his Telegram channel.
“I don’t believe it!” For half a year to hold on to the “Bakhmut Fortress” with your teeth, so that later you can just leave a million-plus city?
I do not believe in the abandonment of cities, but I surely believe in a provocation with mass casualties, including a nuclear one. Bandera, like ghouls, cannot live without blood.
– Mikhail Onufrienko, a former Ukrainian citizen, now lives in Krym.

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 11:00 utc | 364

4th night of riots:
79 injured policemen
2560 fires in public space
1,350 vehicles set on fire
234 buildings burned or damaged
Attacks on 31 police stations, 16 municipal police stations and 11 gendarmerie barracks
994 detainees
5th night of the riots:
45 policemen and gendarmes were injured
577 vehicles and 74 buildings were set on fire
871 fires in public space
attacks on 10 gendarmerie barracks, 10 police stations and 6 municipal guards
Two community centers, a youth center and many others were burnt down
French Mayors home ram-raided by burning car as family slept during fifth night of violence. Vincent Jeanbrun of L’Hay-les-Roses.
The situation continues to spiral out of control and Macron appears to be in hiding. Some speculate that he may be planning to abandon France and flee.

Posted by: france is fucked | Jul 2 2023 11:04 utc | 366

what did it take ben ali to flee tunisia?

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jul 2 2023 11:09 utc | 368

in france it is about gas prices (yellow vests), retirement age, macron forcing his legislation through the national assembly, immigration and conversely racism. france found a way to self-destruct and will take the eu with it.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jul 2 2023 11:16 utc | 370

Riots spreading to Switzerland and Belgium ?
More information please.

Posted by: Exile | Jul 2 2023 11:27 utc | 372

На Херсонском направлении завершено уничтожение подразделений ВСУ, высадившихся на острове Антоновский в районе антоновского моста.
In the Kherson direction, the destruction of the AFU units that landed on Antonovsky Island in the Antonovsky Bridge area has been completed.
🔹 Russian Ministry of Defense

Posted by: Antonovsky Bridge | Jul 2 2023 11:36 utc | 374

No riots on Lake Geneva FWIW

Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Jul 2 2023 11:43 utc | 376

reply to 330
The fact that Ukraine would protest over not having enough graves is utterly repellent. Again, where’s the rebellion, the fragging, the attacks on military kidnappers? A little fuss here and there doesn’t change them from being compliant sheep at a slaughterhouse, just livestock.
No way Russia should surround Kiev or any major city. They will refuse to surrender and cry to the world while they starve and send children out to face tanks. And I wouldn’t look for hope in France’s fall as the numbers show the thing is winding down.

Posted by: Eighthman | Jul 2 2023 11:46 utc | 378

Already the Russian ‘trace’ had surfaced…as always…how can it be without that?!

If French police and army cannot stop the Russia backed riots, the EU should consider deploying units and maintain law and order.

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 11:49 utc | 380

Tour de France and Montreaux Jazz Festival seems to have everyone occupied
Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Jul 2 2023 11:47 utc | 387
————–
Watching Tour de France live on Eurosport right now. Well, all the burning happens in the night in France.

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 11:53 utc | 382

The neoliberal influenced French in London are not getting it as they all sup from the same PR News narratives as the rest of the Collective Waste.
The aim of driving the Russian Peoples to a revolt against the immutable desire to remain Russia for Russians has failed, again.
Beware what you wish for, as the saying goes, the blowback would destroy you. Or something like that.
Or put it another way –
Careful of staring into the abyss…
The Ancient Never Ending Empire now finds the Abyss has stared back and the Peoples know that they have been lied to all their lives – they can only turn towards their own masters and the palaces that house them.
London will be burning this summer too. Armed police and riot squads. Restrictions were n gatherings and travel. Social media shit downs, cellphone signals cut and internet turned off. The new draconian Laws have been sneaked in since Covid.
Elon the Mars King has his rockets ready… and slamming the shutters down on watchers of twitter is about control of these who are registered, knowing who of them is following the ‘enemy’ – guilt by association!
‘If you ain’t registered you can no longer watch the tv in the shop window.’
That is nothing to do with commercial interest that is the Boot coming down harder.
Time to consider filling the old banger of all we can carry and taking a boat to Freedom.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jul 2 2023 12:06 utc | 384

My son took me over the St Bernard Pass for lunch in Aosta Italy and returning through the ski resorts and the Mont Blanc Tunnel yesterday, holiday traffic was heavy!

Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Jul 2 2023 12:08 utc | 386

Things are calming down. We were the ones who had the first disturbances the first night, and now it’s back to normal.
Posted by: laguerre | Jul 2 2023 12:07 utc | 393
—————
Can you guarantee yourself that it would be a safe night today? No one will burn your car or your neighbours?

Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 12:11 utc | 388

@Richard Steven Hack
Where are the Situationists when you need them?
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack
Macron sent them on a psychogeographic outing to the minefields.

Posted by: begob | Jul 2 2023 12:13 utc | 390

Can you guarantee yourself that it would be a safe night today? No one will burn your car or your neighbours?
Posted by: ostro | Jul 2 2023 12:11 utc | 396
That’s silly. Of course there’s no guarantee, much like there’s no guarantee I won’t be swallowed by a whale this afternoon, but things have calmed down, and people are behaving like it’s all over. Just for reference, this Youtube shows what happened at the end of our street on Tuesday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySF49DUtmb8.

Posted by: laguerre | Jul 2 2023 12:21 utc | 392

Any links to Swiss rioting?

Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Jul 2 2023 12:24 utc | 394

Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 2 2023 11:44 utc | 385
>I don’t think that the Russo-Ukrainian war is existential for the West.
It wasn’t existential for the USA until USA threw its dick on the table, so to speak, and made it existential. Problem now is how can USA erase its mistake. My longstanding prediction is that negotiations will start later this year but immediately stall. However, USA propaganda organs will trumpet that willingness to negotiate proves that Putin is desperate, which proves that USA is winning, Russia is losing. Then USA will throw Ukraine down the memory hole after the Nov 2024 Presidential election. As soon as USA support ends, Ukraine collapses, and that’s where the crystal ball gets cloudy.
Russia definitely doesn’t want to occupy a hostile Ukraine. One possibility is for Russia to give back Donbas and Crimea, subject to various conditions (demilitarization of Ukraine, permanent Russian military bases in Donbas, Crimea and on Polish and Romanian borders, regional autonomy, dual passports for residents of Donbas and Crimea, Russian language in Donbas and Crimea, etc). These conditions amount to turning Ukraine into a permanent vassal of Russia but restoration of territorial integrity is a way to sell the deal to Ukrainian citizens. Might be wise to carve out Lviv and give that to Poland, then exile all the fanatics there. But keep the Carpathians, especially the tunnel to Hungary.

Posted by: Revelo | Jul 2 2023 12:28 utc | 396

More rumblings about Iran’s plan to set up naval alliances with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States to control the Straits of Hormuz.
Russia has no US pipeline to hit to revenge Nordstream. But if Iran closes the Straits to US tankers…
USA will need a third front.

Posted by: scepticalSOB | Jul 2 2023 12:29 utc | 398

Perhaps reports of the appearance of weapons previously shipped to the Ukraine in the hands of the rioters got on their nerves.
Posted by: Panza | Jul 2 2023 12:22 utc | 401
This is a misunderstanding. I’m sure there are weapons in Marseille, where AK47s have long been on sale for $200 apiece I think. But elsewhere there’s no sign of weapons in the hands of the demonstrators, either in videos or my personal auditory observation.

Posted by: laguerre | Jul 2 2023 12:33 utc | 400