SS & sb
Ukraine has been run by oligaric clans for 30 years. There is no government outside or independent of these people. You can belly ache till the cows come home about it, but that is the reality. Those you call traitors understand this reality very well and did what they could to work with the existing power structures without intervening directly and making Russia responsible for an entire corrupt state. You don’t like it but you have no realistic solution for it either – just painless condemnation from the sidelines. A true and lasting solution should be a Ukrainian one, thus the current government is not attacked directly. It should be brought down by Ukrainians themselves when those who have the power to make substantive changes in policy understand there is no viable alternative. Success is not guaranteed but this is the wisest policy with the best chance for a workable outcome.

Posted by: the pessimist | Aug 7 2023 18:13 utc | 304

Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 7 2023 12:21 utc | 260
“Woman arrested in plot to kill Zelensky. Either there are no men left to take care of that or they don’t have the cojones.”
——
What would that accomplish? elensky is just the front man.

Posted by: malenkov | Aug 7 2023 18:28 utc | 306

Posted by: 600w | Aug 7 2023 18:09 utc | 304
@polarbear4
Including pics of the white arm bands:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/4/4/will-the-bucha-massacre-wake-up-the-world

Posted by: Membrum Virile | Aug 7 2023 18:30 utc | 308

Re: posts 233-235 (shadowbanned escalation plan)
Morality considerations aside, there are practical reasons for Russian not to take out AWACS, or spy satellites for that matter. The operation of these spies by the USA reduces their fears of a first strike. You not want a nuclear power to be blinded and fearful. Especially one that specializes in dirty tricks. Because, in their blindness, if they come to believe that a first strike is heading their way, they definitely will launch “first”.

Posted by: spindz | Aug 7 2023 18:35 utc | 310

“You not want a nuclear power to be blinded and fearful. Especially one that specializes in dirty tricks”
good point, spindz.
It’s hard to integrate the logic of conventional military conflict with MAD’s logic. Still, we need to try.

Posted by: dadooronron | Aug 7 2023 18:50 utc | 312

Regarding 279.
Mr. shadowbanned is obsessed with the “traition” aspect of the issue, but the core of his allegations seems substantiated in facts.
1. Why the RF has not touched the principal targets of the Ukraine’ Energy System?
The 750/330 substations in West Ukraine.
The switchgears of the Nuclear Power Facilities.
2. Why the RF is pumping oil through Ukraine to Europe, paying fees to the Ukrainian State for the transit.
3. Why Ukraine’s railways used for military logistics keep working.
4. Why Ukraine’s mayor command centers are untouched.
Etc.
I mean, not total destruction, but not even a little…
It speaks volumes about the tacit agreements between the dominant collective agents in conflict: USA & RF.
It has nothing to do with humanitarian issues. Some ones are strategical, but some are the consequence of the pure greed of some elites in the RF that have the power to leverage this so called SMO.
So, yes, shadowbanned is an inconvenient “troll”, but his allegations persist unrefuted.
Better his concerns than blind cultism.

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 7 2023 18:53 utc | 314

Ukraine has been run by oligaric clans for 30 years. There is no government outside or independent of these people. You can belly ache till the cows come home about it, but that is the reality.
Posted by: the pessimist | Aug 7 2023 18:13 utc | 305

We know that very well.
The problem is that the situation in Russia is not as fundamentally different as many here would like to imagine.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 19:07 utc | 316

Morality considerations aside, there are practical reasons for Russian not to take out AWACS, or spy satellites for that matter. The operation of these spies by the USA reduces their fears of a first strike. You not want a nuclear power to be blinded and fearful. Especially one that specializes in dirty tricks. Because, in their blindness, if they come to believe that a first strike is heading their way, they definitely will launch “first”.
Posted by: spindz | Aug 7 2023 18:35 utc | 311

I didn’t call for shooting down satellites. That is major escalation. Also, there are satellites and satellites — the ones used to guide the UA army and the early warning systems for ICBM launches are different systems.
But the drones in the Black Sea should be shot down. Those are actively taking part in now even attacks on pre-war Russian territory.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 19:08 utc | 318

shаdοwbanned @ 319

But the drones in the Black Sea should be shot down. Those are actively taking part in now even attacks on pre-war Russian territory.

Drones are robots, shoot them down like clay pigeons 🙃

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 7 2023 19:20 utc | 320

You fuckers can’t get it in your head that Russia did not enter Ukraine for the purpose of destroying the Donbass, but to liberate it.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 7 2023 19:21 utc | 322

Which one is it that has been actually happening?

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 19:23 utc | 322

You fuckers can’t get it in your head that Russia did not enter Ukraine for the purpose of destroying the Donbass, but to liberate it.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 7 2023 19:21 utc | 322
Which one is it that has been actually happening?
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 19:23 utc | 323
—————————————————————-
The front line is where it is, and it is where it is because the West keep replenishing and assisting the Nazis in Ukraine. I agree with you that the time has come to do something about that. But you are not attacking the US or NATO, you are attacking President Putin: Why?

Posted by: Ed | Aug 7 2023 19:31 utc | 324

Regarding 318
It is a legitimate question.
If the RF does impact the the oil’s industry, Ukraine is over in a month.
The tanks, the armored Bradleys do not run without oil’s products. Pumping oil and paying revenues to the enemy to use their western toys to kill Russians, is obscene.
The same with the electrical system. No military industry can persist beyond days without regular inputs.

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 7 2023 19:37 utc | 326

Regarding 322.
Dear Ed:
I have never been “4Q8”. Ask @b for IPs.
And take your meds. You seem to be near to experience a stroke.
God bless you, murica.

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 7 2023 19:45 utc | 328

In all my posts, I have not said a word about V.V.
Indeed, I have not said anything against the RF. No bad words against anyone in charge.
Notice some incoherenced military behavior, without calling names, its my right. I know perfectly well whom my duty is about.
I never will be a mouthpiece of the enemy nor an old illiterate murica willing to speak what I do not.

Posted by: L4d8r1t | Aug 7 2023 20:21 utc | 330

New developments of drones on the frontline: now drones are being used to drop Soviet mines (of which Russia has huge stocks) from the air on enemy targets. After having dropped the explosive the drone returns to its base, where another mine will be attached to it.
https://russian.rt.com/russia/article/1184644-revolvernaya-ustanovka-sbros-fpv-kopter
“Reusable mini-bomber”: experts – about a revolver for dropping ammunition from a UAV
Specialists of the Russian Instrument Design Bureau No. 71 have developed a revolver-type installation designed to drop 40-mm and 30-mm ammunition from FPV quadrocopters with a payload of up to 3 kg. As RT was told in the design bureau, the first samples have already been sent to the NWO zone. Previously, such products were not mounted on Russian drones. In addition, the installation can be used to scatter leaflets with instructions for surrendering. According to experts, the revolving container has practical value, and after passing the tests and making the necessary improvements, it can be installed on various types of UAVs.
Engineers of Instrument Design Bureau No. 71 sent prototypes of a revolver for dropping 30-mm and 40-mm ammunition from FPV quadrocopters to the NWO zone, RT was told at the design bureau.
“We have already carried out preliminary tests, which confirmed the operability of the design. Several samples have already gone to the NVO zone, now we are eliminating the shortcomings and preparing to send one sample of a special UAV with such a reset, ”said the Instrument Design Bureau No. 71.
The revolver allows you to drop one or more shells and is installed on a UAV with a payload of up to 3 kg. To date, design bureau engineers have produced two modifications. The first has four compartments for 40 mm ammunition, the second has six compartments for 30 mm shells. Also, the product can be used to drop leaflets with a call to surrender and instructions on surrendering to the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Based on the results of combat testing in the NVO zone, the specialists of the design bureau expect to launch mass production of turrets.
Instrument Design Bureau No. 71 was founded in 2023 to help the defenders of the Fatherland with the supply of products that are in demand in the unmanned aviation sector. The team of the bureau consists of engineers with competencies in the field of UAVs, electronics and IT.
At the moment, in addition to the revolver drop unit, the design bureau specialists have developed several types of frames for copters and a mechanism for dropping projectiles with a diameter of up to 93 mm and a weight of up to 2 kg.
RT discussed with experts the practical benefits of using turrets on strike UAVs, as well as the possibility of scaling this technology.
– There are not many publications in the media about the use of a revolving mount on a UAV. How unique is this product? Could it improve the firepower of Russian drones on the front lines?
Head of the Center for Unmanned Aviation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering Maxim Kondratiev:
– Indeed, we can say that the development of the Design Bureau of Instrument Engineering No. 71 is unique. Now, to drop ammunition from small drones, the simplest bracket with a servo drive is used – an electric motor that allows you to drop grenades or mines.
There is nothing complicated in its manufacture. In addition, it is inexpensive and almost never fails, that is, the probability of failure is minimal. The revolving circuit is incomparably more complex and expensive, although it is just as easy to install on a drone as a servo bracket.
Apparently, the product of the Instrument Design Bureau No. 71 is a plastic casing, inside of which there is a drum with ammunition.
It is extremely important that the product proves its reliability in the CBO zone. To do this, the installation must be scrolled in a timely manner at the command of the drone operator. It is also necessary to check how the brainchild of Instrument Design Bureau No. 71 tolerates various weather conditions, temperature fluctuations, moisture and dust.
If the “revolver” survives these tests on the front lines and goes into mass production, then our small drones can receive certain advantages. For example, they will be able to drop projectiles in doses: two 40-mm ammunition at one point where the enemy is located, and two more at another.
Military Portal FounderRussia Dmitry Kornev:
– The revolver-type launcher is used in combat aviation, but not to say that often. In Russia, it is used on the upgraded Tu-22M3M long-range bomber and on the Tu-160 White Swan strategic missile carrier.
o summarize the advantages of the “revolver”, it is compactness, rate of fire, selectivity. The latter implies the possibility of choosing ammunition from the assortment in the drum.
On the Internet, you can find fragmentary information about the installation of a revolving discharge on a UAV. About a year ago, information appeared in the media about the delivery of 800 Taiwanese attack drones Revolver 860 to Ukraine through Poland.
The device is made in the form of a fairly large quadrocopter. Its mass is 42 kg, the range of application is up to 20 km. It was reported that the Revolver 860 is capable of lifting eight 60 mm caliber mines into the air. However, there is no information about whether these platforms were used even in Ukrainian sources.
As far as I understand, the “revolver” of the Instrument Design Bureau No. 71 involves the use of VOGs (VOG – a grenade launcher fragmentation shot. – RT ) 30 mm and 40 mm. The mass of each projectile is about 300 g. The carriers will be quadrocopters, on which regular army ammunition has been suspended for a long time.
One of the reasons for the infrequent use of the “revolver” is the lack of reliability. At the same time, it is quite possible to simplify its design, which, most likely, was done.
Thanks to the use of a turret, FOG discharges can become more accurate. There are some advantages to drop sequencing, because you can adjust your fire on a single target or drop projectiles on multiple targets.
Director General of the Center for Integrated Unmanned Solutions (CCBR) Dmitry Kuzyakin:
– Speaking about the expediency of the “revolver”, it is necessary to take into account a number of factors that objectively make its use difficult.
Firstly, this type of installation has certain dimensions and weight. Such an installation can not be installed on every device. At least for some small-sized UAVs, even a few tens of grams of excess weight are critical.
For example, our Joker FPV drones can lift up to 2.5kg of payload. And we understand that any additional weighting is fraught with the fact that they will not be able to perform combat missions. In any case, there is no escape from the fact that increasing the payload always burns battery power or fuel if the UAV flies on an internal combustion engine.
Secondly, the revolver-type launcher suffers from jamming. Yes, it is used by combat aircraft, but all the mechanisms there have been brought to perfection. The advantage of a “revolver” for an aircraft is that it hides inside the fuselage without reducing the speed characteristics of the carrier. In particular, on the Tu-160, a “revolver” is needed to reach supersonic speed.
I evaluate the development of colleagues very skeptically. From my point of view, other types of launch containers can be used on UAVs, which are structurally simpler and, accordingly, more reliable.
— Does it make sense to use the revolving scheme for dropping ammunition not only on small FPV quadrocopters, but also on other domestic UAVs?
Head of the Center for Unmanned Aviation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering Maxim Kondratiev:
– To answer this question, it is necessary to understand the purpose of the revolver. It is needed for compact placement of ammunition. Thus, there is not much point in hanging it from the UAV, where the payload is already perfectly placed without compromising the flight qualities of the carrier.
For example, there is no reason to hang this product on our Orion MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) reconnaissance and strike drone. The strike armament that it can lift into the air is located under the fuselage and wing.
Military Portal FounderRussia Dmitry Kornev:
– There are different opinions on the use of revolving installations. And in each case, the decision should be made by the developer of the UAV or other aviation platform.
But purely technically, the “revolver” can be mounted on a variety of drones, including heavy ones. For example, these can be drones comparable in size to manned aircraft. These launchers will be needed by such UAVs to reduce radar visibility, compact placement of ammunition, selectivity and rate of fire.

Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Aug 7 2023 20:58 utc | 332

L4d8r1t @ 327

If the RF does impact the the oil’s industry, Ukraine is over in a month.

Oil and geopolitics is very strange. I realized that with Libya which turned into a failed state with a lot of chaos and yet not a drop of oil stopped flowing. Then I learned that FDR supplied oil to Nazi Germany through Spain. Throughout the entire SMO all the fuel used by Ukraine probably comes from Russia.
Even after the nuke apocalypse there will be tanker trucks driving up to gas stations to fill the pumps. People will be driving up vomiting with their skin peeling off to fill up their tanks.
The spice must flow.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Aug 7 2023 21:17 utc | 334

What the above meant to me is that they were trying to flood the zone. They had troops in the capital, Kyiv. They were trying have it look like there were Russian troops everywhere already, so Ukraine wouldn’t fight. But since Ukraine did fight, Russia didn’t have enough troops in most places.
Anyway, that’s the way I look at it.
Posted by: Ed4 | Aug 6 2023 23:54 utc | 152
————————————————–
I understand why you would see it that way, which was also the Western MSM position at the time as well. And I agree that Russia did not go in with enough forces, and I said that in my reply @104. But if the Ukraine Military were such bad asses, why was Zelensky ready to negotiate in Istanbul?
So, I will reiterate that for the faint to be successful, it must look real; troops in the city and blocking roads is part of that. Also, while I could be wrong, I will take the Russian MOD’s word over a western propaganda narrative any day of the week.
Good to you Ed4.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 7 2023 0:20 utc | 159
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feint

Posted by: arthur brogard | Aug 7 2023 21:21 utc | 336

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Aug 7 2023 4:16 utc | 191
maybe empire wars? i mean the US is the main instigator of these conflicts, and it is trying to preserve its empire.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 7 2023 4:34 utc | 192
I would like to call it the ‘America War’ because the way I see it America is at war with the world: especially the Western World, is it not?
Pretending to be ‘on the side of’ Kiev Ukraine it is actually promoting the complete destruction of it and death of every man in it.
Obviously at war with Donbas Ukraine.
Obviously at war with Russia
Obviously at war with Germany which is sinking as we watch.
Obviously at war with the EU and anywhere that sanctions are crippling the economies.
Obviously at war with Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran etc. etc…
Tell me any place the USA is not at war with?
Nope. This is the USA at war with the world.

Posted by: arthur brogard | Aug 7 2023 21:27 utc | 338

If they kill off or incapacitate enough male Ukrainians, not only is the war over but Ukraine will be extinct.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 7 2023 21:18 utc | 336

But most of those males are ethnic Russians.
The Ukronazis in Kiev have been preferentially press ganging people from the Russian speaking areas (and from Transcarpathia, which also leans pro-Russian). Not so much from Western Ukraine.
This is just monstrous, and it didn’t have to be this way.
People have very short memories. Remember how life was in Kherson in the five months between March 1 2022 (when it was captured largely without a fight) and August 2022 when Ukraine got HIMARS and started shelling it. There were some protests in the first few days, then life went on calmly and peacefully. There were in fact more terrorist acts in Melitopol than in Kherson, but even in Melitopol those have now subsided from their peak a few months ago.
The city wasn’t destroyed, there was no violence, regular people just got on with it.
And Kherson was actually the most pro-Ukrainian region in the whole of Novorossiya.
Now all those people who would have otherwise peacefully become Russian citizens without much of a fuss will be slaughtered. And a lot of pre-war Russian citizens will die in the process too. Plus all the destruction.
Why did it have to be that way? The Kherson experience from March-July 2022 could have been the whole of Ukraine and not just a fleeting moment of peace.
Someone above dismissed the suggestion about using tactical nukes. But the whole point of having nukes was to not allow the Anglo-Saxons to engineer yet another fratricidal war on the Eurasian mainland as they have been doing for centuries, replaying WWII on Russian soil again. And yet here we are. Because no credible deterrent was presented, and if there is no credible deterrent, then of course you are not going to deter anything.
Cutting off the supply points with tactical nukes would not make NATO intervene, precisely the opposite, it will send a strong message to back off or else. And the vassals would get very cold feet about further participation because they would know that the next step is strategic strikes against them. But now nobody is afraid of anything, Moscow will be hit with drones daily, and the Kremlin is a laughing stock.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 21:40 utc | 340

LightYearsFromHome | Aug 7 2023 21:17 utc | 335
***Even after the nuke apocalypse there will be tanker trucks driving up to gas stations to fill the pumps. People will be driving up vomiting with their skin peeling off to fill up their tanks.***
Few in England will need to worry about that — the political establishment’s obsession with “net zero” may — thanks to the nastily damp and chilly climate in most of Britain — have by then already killed off or seriously crippled most of the population anyway.

Posted by: Cynic | Aug 7 2023 21:59 utc | 342

One more thing.
Watching the way many here are fawning over the current leadership in the Kremlin, one can’t help but draw parallels with the late 80s. Back then it wasn’t just the nascent neocons who were very happy with Gorbachev, it was also many of the otherwise “left” and pro-Soviet leaning people in the West. Because Gorbachev looked young and energetic, a departure from the senescent late Brezhnev era, and they saw a lot of hope in him.
And kept praising him long after he destroyed everything.
Of course, it wasn’t really him that did it — he was a figurehead installed there by more powerful forces as a useful idiot who can be maneuvered in the desired direction. Which doesn’t mean he didn’t make a lot of messes entirely on his own.
But the point is that the end result was the second worst cataclysm in Russian history. Millions died of malnutrition, substandard access to medical care, despair, violence, etc.
That just in Russia. But Moscow also betrayed all its allies, so all the countries that went through periods of starvation (Cuba, North Korea) or were destroyed because they no longer had any protection (Iraq, Yugoslavia, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.) are on the Kremlin’s consciousness too.
And in the long term that turned out to be the minor problem. Because by surrendering everything in such a way, the late Soviet elites created the current neocon monster, which is on course to eventually blow up the world. They gave it ideological justification (see, we defeated the Soviets and now we are the sole superpower, we can do whatever we want, including attacking the other nuclear powers).
Khrushchev shares a lot of the blame for the collapse of the USSR — he set it in motion, not so much because he wanted it, it was more because he was too stupid to see clearly the consequences of his actions — but at least in terms of strategic balance he played hard ball and that is how mutual deterrence and relative peace were created and maintained.
Gorbachev took concrete measures to ruin that. And idiots like Scott Ritter are still praising him to this day for it. The INF treaty is actually a catastrophic betrayal from a Russian perspective. Sure, short-range missiles are destabilizing. But if you are a land power you cannot give up those without requiring ship-based missiles to be included in it too. Because what happened in the end? Russia doesn’t have a huge arsenal of short and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, but the US has encircled the Eurasian landmass with some one hundred ships each carrying a huge number of Tomahawk missiles.
Again, remember how people were looking at Gorbachev back then, and how many still do (although they are a minority by now because the disaster that followed is just impossible to ignore). Then think about how the current inhabitants of the Kremlin are perceived, and praised for not being rash, overreacting, escalating, etc.
Then remember that while Gorbachev and co. were selling out the country, there were in fact lots of people there who saw what was actually happening, were strongly against it, and tried to stop it, but they did not succeed and were marginalized and were largely written out of history.
The equivalent of those people exists now too, some in fact are the very same people. But now their view is seen as “trolling” for some unfathomable reasons…

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 22:10 utc | 344

Posted by: arthur brogard @ 339
Your list is incomplete. America is at war with the ROW but it is also at war with its own citizens who are sleeping, starving and defecating on the crumbling streets and freeway overpasses across the US

Posted by: Willow | Aug 7 2023 22:33 utc | 346

Regarding Bucha, would not be surprised if The Ukrainian soldiers put the white arm bands on the corpses of those civilians in town whom they killed. If were civilian not sure would want to identify myself with either side in a contested war zone. Believe Bucha was a murder/propaganda production by Ukrainian forces.

Posted by: Thurl | Aug 7 2023 22:43 utc | 348

Posted by: HERMIUS | Aug 7 2023 22:43 utc | 348
Too bad the satellites photographed those bodies days before russians left 🙂
But of course, what Pravda writes is the truth for you, no need to argue. Of course, the global south knows the score.

Posted by: Membrum Virile | Aug 7 2023 22:46 utc | 350

Membrum Virile | Aug 7 2023 22:46 utc | 351
*** Too bad the satellites photographed those bodies days before russians left :)***
Too bad the US/UK/NATO cabal has falsified so much alleged “evidence” that garbage-level propaganda such as he above is now (to anyone reasonabl;y intelligent) just a sick joke.
Btw, did the NATO perpetrators ever release satellite images they claimed to have re the downed Malayan airliner? Or, like the black box, did it vanish down their memory-hole of convenience?

Posted by: Cynic | Aug 7 2023 23:07 utc | 352

Posted by: S | Aug 7 2023 22:01 utc | 344
This medvedev “journalist” is repeating this self-defeating horsecrap emanating from the Kremlin that somehow the Bolsheviks de-Russified the Rusyns. I mean, this doesn’t even stand the simply timeline of events.
Galicia and Volhynia were part of Austria-Hungary, whose authorities began the process of creating an anti-Russian Ukrainian identity in the second half of the 19th cent. The Germans were heavily involved as well, especially from the beginning of the 20th cent. As the Austrian Jew Josef Roth put it in 1930, “Ukrainian nationalism is a German patent. The Germans have invented it to destroy the Russian state.”
The infamous Paul von Rohrbach had already pressed for the creation of an artificial wedge between the :Ukrainian Russians and the Great Russians”. It went off with the Frei Ukraina” project in 1915.
Now, there was a certain sentiment of Ukrainian identity in the Ukrainian territories of the Russian empire – which did NOT include Galicia – and it was mostly a form of opposition to the Russian feudalism, expressed by an imported Great Russian aristocracy. Lenin went beyond that and pushed for a stronger national identity, adding incomprehensible aspects for a socialist internationalist.
However, the concept of a local nationhood wasn’t completely foreign in the Russian empire either, hence the notion of “Little Russia” that was artistically expressed in the monument in Novgorod. Unfortunately, they left out the Rusyn and so did the Soviets.
In anycase, the concept of the Soviet Ukrainian national didn’t include Russophobia. This isn’t a matter of speculation, but a fact, verified by the solid patriotism of Soviet Ukrainians in WWII and their support for the continuation of the union in 1991 referendum, something that Putin and his grouppies conveniently ignore. No, it was the German-made Ukro-fascism, maintained by the Anglo-Americans, that created the current monstrosity. And they were able to achieve that due to the breakup of the country against the wish and vote of the people, including the Ukrainians.
So this utter nonsense that the current mess had to do with Lenin is an utter falsehood, typically propagated to whitewash the scumbag who perpetrated one of the worst acts of treason in history with the Belavezha Accords”: Boris Yeltsin. As for Putin’s assertion that Lenin’s political descendants pulled down his statues, one has to see videos of the anti-Maidan and consider the fate of leftist parties in Ukraine – starting with the Communist party – to understand that he is lying out of his teeth, all in order to defend Yeltsin.
The sad thing about this attitude is that in real terms it harms Russian interests and Putin himself. It is simply a disgusting psychological complex that he is unable to get rid of and one that doesn’t offer him any actual benefits.

Posted by: Constantine | Aug 7 2023 23:19 utc | 354

So this utter nonsense that the current mess had to do with Lenin is an utter falsehood, typically propagated to whitewash the scumbag who perpetrated one of the worst acts of treason in history with the Belavezha Accords”: Boris Yeltsin. As for Putin’s assertion that Lenin’s political descendants pulled down his statues, one has to see videos of the anti-Maidan and consider the fate of leftist parties in Ukraine – starting with the Communist party – to understand that he is lying out of his teeth, all in order to defend Yeltsin.
The sad thing about this attitude is that in real terms it harms Russian interests and Putin himself. It is simply a disgusting psychological complex that he is unable to get rid of and one that doesn’t offer him any actual benefits.
Posted by: Constantine | Aug 7 2023 23:19 utc | 355

Putin was put in power with the primary task of cementing the order established in the 1990s and making sure that the Yeltsinites were not tried for their crimes (they would have been all lined up and shot if it was up to popular sentiment). In other words, no return of communism ever again. Stabilizing and raising the country from the dead was a secondary task.
Still to this day you can see that the priorities have not truly fundamentally changed.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 23:41 utc | 356

Is this RAND Corp. doc legit? Even if it isn’t the content is probably true…US plans to use war to bolster US economic power at the expense of Europe/Germany.
Article with Rand doc embedded
Posted by: Objective Observer | Aug 7 2023 16:20 utc | 289
Cripes. You need a Rand corp doc? The USA proudly declares the very fact don’t they? ‘Our object is to weaken Russia’. ‘We want to keep Russia out Germany down and America In’.
America is at war with the world. It has the largest zombified population in the world. Pretty astounding considering so small in comparison with e.g. India and China but I doubt very much their populations are anywhere near as trance state asleep as Americans.
And that allows a handful of total lunatics to adopt and prosecute this incredible inhuman insane attitude. How can it possibly be? How incredibly inhumanly evil must they be? Nope. It happens because ‘they know not what they are doing’. They don’t have the insight or the oversight to see what they are doing. It is not an over-riding policy to be at war with the world. It is an over-riding policy to maximise profits at any given time in the quickest easiest way. And that is: make war, promote war. And that’s what they do.

Posted by: arthur brogard | Aug 7 2023 23:54 utc | 358

A Ukrainian walks into a library and asks for a book on war.
The librarian refuses, saying “You’ll only lose it”.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 7 2023 19:42 utc | 328
Then he asks for a book on peace.
The librarian says, Oh, you want War AND Peace?
Sorry, that’s a Russian book..we burned it!

Posted by: Peter b | Aug 7 2023 23:56 utc | 360

Shadowbanned is a wretched troll who can call everyone names on an un moderated blog such as this, Vile Member is a very vocal idiot who spews vile propaganda and name calling with no proof whatsoever and you still all reply? Unrelated economic arguing who has the bigger dick economic realities. This place is almost worthless. You’ve all been played and cannot seem to figure it out by banning these disrupter’s of discussion.
Signal to noise still too low. No wonder Hack was so grumpy.
Please go ahead and continue to ruin any value this site had.

Posted by: Fudup | Aug 8 2023 0:10 utc | 362

osted by: Fudup | Aug 8 2023 0:10 utc | 363
some of the economic stuff seems useful to me, but not knowing much about the fake science of economics i have to struggle sometimes to separate the signal from the noise. b doesn’t want to ban disruptors — his blog, his choice. probably worked in my favor a couple of times as i am occasionally disruptive on certain subjects. the name thieves are annoying, but i guess have to be dealt with on a case by case basis. i go back and forth on shadowbanned, maybe he is a legit non troll Russian, but he strikes one very repetitive note which fits a troll agenda.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 8 2023 0:22 utc | 364

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 22:10 utc | 345
this is a good post, e.g.
“And in the long term that turned out to be the minor problem. Because by surrendering everything in such a way, the late Soviet elites created the current neocon monster, which is on course to eventually blow up the world. They gave it ideological justification (see, we defeated the Soviets and now we are the sole superpower, we can do whatever we want, including attacking the other nuclear powers).”
Ritter is always blowing his own horn. I appreciate his opposition to the neocons, and in particular his pushback against the Ukraine/NATO propaganda which trolls in here are still trying to sell (Bucha), but i don’t trust him when he talks about his own role in the treaty with Russia, or his analysis of Russian actors and politics which he presents as the objective truth.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Aug 8 2023 0:35 utc | 366

Where are you getting that info?
Metinvest still owned everything in Mariupol as of last year.
Curiously, the Avdeevka Coke Plant is also Metinvest property, which immediately raises the question whether that has something to do with the fact that Avdeevka hasn’t been captured. Which will be hard to do without destroying the plant. So Donetsk will continue to be shelled for the indefinite future…
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 23:51 utc | 358
What info? That Akhmetov sold his plants? Read my post again. I queried if he did is what I did.
So if he didn’t what do we make of that, then, in light of the contention that the course of the war was influenced by a desire to protect his interests in Mariupol? Has the contention been refuted? Or must we look deeper into what happened – like perhaps finding movements of money, materials, changes of contracts, special provisions – that made the Mariupol events work out ‘alright’ for Akhmetov? And then peruse the situation in Avdeevka to see if we can find similar things happening there that might presage and ‘ok’ signal to go ahead and take Avdeevka, all systems being now in place?

Posted by: arthur brogard | Aug 8 2023 0:38 utc | 368

Posted by: arthur brogard | Aug 8 2023 0:06 utc | 362
From the Military Balance 2022, published by IISS. So only short of 2 or 3 Russian satellites launched since then.
Russia:
SATELLITES 113
COMMUNICATIONS 64: 4 Blagovest; 2 Garpun; 21
Gonets-M/M1 (dual-use); 3 Mod Globus (Raduga-1M); 5
Meridian; 21 Rodnik (Strela-3M); 8 Strela-3
NAVIGATION/POSITIONING/TIMING 26: 24
GLONASS; 2 Parus
ISR 11: 2 Bars-M; 2 GEO-IK-2; 1 Kondor; 1 Kosmos-2519;
2 Persona; 3 Resurs-P
ELINT/SIGINT 7: 5 Lotos-S; 1 Pion-NKS; 1 Tselina-2
EARLY WARNING 5 Tundra
The problem with dumping this information from the west is that a lot of Western countries have a one, two or a few, and some have a lot.
Then there are many, many satellites owned by a more than a dozen Western companies that have their services bought by Western countries. Russia is not allowed to buy their services though likely there are a small number of leaks. Wagner is alleged to have bought some photos via a Chinese front company.

Posted by: Ed4 | Aug 8 2023 0:47 utc | 370

Posted by: Fudup | Aug 8 2023 0:10 utc | 363
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. The value of this blog is precisely the contribution of various commentators apart form the blog owner himself. As long as facts come up without extreme language and ACTUAL troliing, this is what grants it value.
What would degrade MoA is the creation of an echo chamber for cultists and giddy grouppies who demand that different views be silenced. A tendency of some folks here lately.
Now, there is an issue of slimy trolls, usually liberal vermin making snarky comments as well as spouting blatant disinfo, but it should be easy to smell them by now. Serious commentators offering criticism of the Russian or any other government opposing the criminal Anglo-American regime are not part of this odious infestation of the bar.

Posted by: Constantine | Aug 8 2023 0:53 utc | 372

Posted by: Arthur brogard | Aug 8 2023 0:32 utc | 366
—————————————————————
I really liked your post about a Ukraine nation being first and foremost a collective of people. If you don’t mind, I would like to expand on your comment.
What is a nation?
1). A nation is primarily a community, a definite community of people. A nation is not a racial or tribal, but a historically constituted community of people. Therefore, a nation is not a casual or ephemeral conglomeration, but a stable community of people.
2). Also, a common language is one of the characteristic features of a nation, a common territory is also one of the necessary characteristic features of a nation.
3). Also, a common economic life, economic cohesion, is one of the characteristic features of a nation.
4). A common psychological make-up, which manifests itself in a common culture, is one of the characteristic features of a nation.
To sum up: A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture. It goes without saying that a nation, like every historical phenomenon, is subject to the law of change, has its history, its beginning and end.
Crimea, and the four Oblasts that voted to leave Ukraine because Western Ukraine and formally Eastern Ukraine do not, and never did share these common characteristic features of a nation. They must be set free.
If you are a Marxist, you will know who I am plagiarizing in a shortened form, though I do not think he will mind.

Posted by: Ed | Aug 8 2023 1:20 utc | 374

Re: Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 22:10 utc | 345

The equivalent of those people exists now too, some in fact are the very same people. But now their view is seen as “trolling” for some unfathomable reasons…

This is because the Russians are great chess players and think in strategic terms whereas Americans have short attention spans and are only able to play chceckers.
We have seen this play out since World War II.
Whereas the Soviet Union/ Russia play chess and think in strategic terms – their adversaries the Americans are incapable of doing so and can only think in short-term tactical terms.
The results since 1945 are plain to see.
To truly understand the arc of history you just learn to think in strategic terms rather than get caught up in the news of the day and the tactical to-and-fro.
This is the mistake the Americans have been making for decades.

Posted by: Julian | Aug 8 2023 2:05 utc | 376

Anyone know who put this shit out a while back (8 months)…?
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-airfind-searchtool&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-searchtool&hspart=airfind&p=Rusia%27s+last+aircraft+carrierr+sunk#id=1&vid=3d9dda1a3ff46eb952bd1e38834f496d&action=click
Some poor noob on an outdoor forum I’m on was claiming this happened recently. Pretty good CGI…

Posted by: DakotaRog | Aug 8 2023 2:16 utc | 378

in the early days of the SBO, I asked my liberal friend how she and other liberals could justify supporting Ukraine with it’s Bandera statute, streets and festivals and soldiers who openly wear Nazi tattoos She explained they weren’t Nazi’s. Rather they were Patriotic Ukrainian nationalists. This was the explanation shared among the Democrats who supported that Ukrainian nationalism. However, in twisted pretzel logic, my those same liberals label any display of American patriot nationalism and Republicans as racist domestic terrorists.

Posted by: Willow | Aug 8 2023 3:47 utc | 380

Posted by: arthur brogard | Aug 8 2023 0:49 utc | 372
Please allow me to apologise for providing a link to MSM,
https://www.newsweek.com/nobody-entitled-their-own-facts-ukraine-opinion-1816504

Posted by: Suresh | Aug 8 2023 4:09 utc | 382

Just outta interest, did anyone decipher what that sulky bloke’s name meant? I tried substituting the numbers with letters they have been associated with but that wasn’t intelligible either unless he is an englander man-child & even then it doesn’t really work.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Aug 8 2023 5:58 utc | 384

Posted by: Membrum Virile | Aug 7 2023 22:46 utc | 351
You keep cheering on the Nazis vile member. Your fairy tale was debunked within hours of it being dreamed up. The Ukrainian propagandists even managed to mess up their staged atrocity video (again) with one of the ‘corpses’ clambering to his feet before the director shouted “cut”.
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/the-bucha-provocation.html

Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Aug 8 2023 7:10 utc | 386

On Rinat Akhmetov, perhaps things are shifting:
https://t.me/ZandVchannel/74009

🇷🇺👉🇺🇦🏴‍☠️ In Russia, the assets of Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov were arrested at the request of the Investigative Committee in the framework of a criminal case on the financing of business structures of an entrepreneur of the Ukrainian military, the Kommersant newspaper writes.

Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 8 2023 7:41 utc | 388

Posted by: titmouse | Aug 8 2023 3:49 utc | 382
‘But, but, tactical nukes really rock, they’ve got like 25 attack, dank graphics when they explode and I always W the game when I use them.’

Posted by: Milites | Aug 8 2023 8:45 utc | 390

Ukrainian woman allegedly planned assassination attempt on Zelenskyj with Russia
The Secret Service SBU published a blurred photo of the woman recorded by agents on Monday, as well as text messages and handwritten notes on military activities. Head of State Selenskyj wrote in the online service Telegram on Monday that the secret service had informed him about the attempted attack and the “fight against traitors” in Ukraine.

Posted by: Soapy Slick | Aug 8 2023 9:40 utc | 392

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Aug 7 2023 23:41 utc | 357
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Aug 8 2023 7:39 utc | 388

On Monday you advocated “sinking all NATO ships worldwide”
On Tuesday you suggested dropping 25 nuclear bombs.

A simple thought experiment:
1. Depose Putin.
2. Replace Putin with shadowbanned.
3. Does Russia win the NATO-Russia War (intact) or
4. Turn itself, and the entire Globe into a smoking radioactive cinder?

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Aug 8 2023 9:46 utc | 394

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/58290

Acting US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visits Niger
She negotiated with the military leaders. The diplomat told reporters that the rebels are aware of the “risks to sovereignty” if the private military company Wagner is invited.

That’s the thing about Wagnerites both within and without RF MoD, no deconfliction hotline, no backchannels, just a framed souvenir in Prigozhin’s man cave showing the heads of NATO’s terror-proxies in a big nasty heap.

Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 8 2023 10:18 utc | 396

The Secret Service SBU published a blurred photo of the woman recorded by agents on Monday, as well as text messages and handwritten notes on military activities. Head of State Selenskyj wrote in the online service Telegram on Monday that the secret service had informed him about the attempted attack and the “fight against traitors” in Ukraine.
Posted by: Soapy Slick | Aug 8 2023 9:40 utc | 394

Funny they should talk about traitors in the context where Selenskyj is the largest traitor, not only due to selling Ukraine to foreign countries and private corporations who rip off the population, but also the catastrophic decisions affecting the battlefield and getting his population slaughtered till the end.

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 8 2023 10:24 utc | 398

“The government doesn’t actually print money, it’s actually the central bank. The government only issues a new loan which they sell off to a private bank or fund, who then sells them to a central bank and/or potentially foreign or domestic investors.”
Doesn’t need to be like that. The central bank is owned and controlled by the Treasury in any sensible country, at which point the government ‘prints the money’, much as it ‘unprints the money’ when it collects taxes.
The ‘loan’ between Treasury and the central bank is just an accounting balancing item between an entity and a subsidiary. It disappears on consolidation.
An example of this is the UK’s “Ways and Means Account” which is how the balancing item was handled prior to the advent of neoliberalism. The UK had worked out it was all just “book debt” by 1857.
Any nation that cannot draw on its central bank is a colony not a country

Posted by: The Accountant | Aug 8 2023 11:23 utc | 400