In other news, a few Russian "puppet" states are seeing the weakness of the bear, and after Kazakhstan condemning the Russian invasion, this week Kyrgyzstan has "strongly recommended" to it's citizen's to not wear anything with resemblance to Russian Z letter propaganda... This will be interesting to watch. Some analysts are predicting, if Russia will fail with Donbas seizure, that it might slowly spark unrests in less stable Russian territories and Russia will implode. And these ex-puppets might give a lot of resources to this happen...

Also about the infamous Putler's picture/video. One of the famous Czech doctors, who previously successfully diagnosed Czech president health condition based on his video footage, has released a diagnose for Putler as well (the only thing which I remember is Parkinson). Unfortunately I am not able to find the article now, but if I ever find it again, I will share it here for sure.

Putin always has such War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength mentality when he gives these statements

He is ex-KGB, I guess its takes roots in you to use double-think after all those years

1 hour ago, 213374U said:

Yeah, that's because the "Moscow" Times isn't actually based in Moscow, or even Russia for that matter. It's blocked in Russia IIRC.

They were based in and operating out of Moscow through the first week of the war. Only after Putin began to enact decrees crushing independent news reporting in Russia did they move their operations to Amsterdam, an eminently sensible and reasonable thing to do.

1 hour ago, pmp10 said:

It is, but it's not tomorrow yet.
I wonder how they will handle the problem that the pipeline also serves Germany.
Maybe they just plan to reduce flow by polish demand. 

Germany has Nord 1.

 

 

4 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

It would be quick win for Ukraine AND Moldovia as they would just get rid of those separatists in few days

Of course they would. The Russians think that Ukraine and Romania are going to invade Transnistria, not the other way around. If they were going to invade from Transnistria they would have back in February when it may have made a difference.

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

I think it's more to damage logistics. Why they didn't start out with this, I don't know.

Yep, this is Day 0 stuff/ military logic 101 type stuff

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

The Sims got a lot of flak in media and church as an advertisement of gay relationships.

That's why I thought they were there too. Basically just throw in all the talking points even if being a pro gay anarchist fascist neo nazi makes no logical sense at all.

42 minutes ago, kanisatha said:

They were based in and operating out of Moscow through the first week of the war. Only after Putin began to enact decrees crushing independent news reporting in Russia did they move their operations to Amsterdam, an eminently sensible and reasonable thing to do.

Haha no. BBC Russian is as genuinely Russian as the 'Moscow' Times, and that isn't Russian either.

The Moscow Times is, and always has been, a publication aimed at people with english as their first language, ie not Russians. Anyone care to guess when it got an online edition, in Russian, as a paper called the Moscow Times? It was... 2020, and they had 4 years where there was literally no Russian language version of the paper at all. It's target audience is, was, and always has been foreigners, not Russians, despite its name.

17 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Will be interesting to see if they cut the flow through the pipeline in Bulgaria. There are astronomical fines to pay if they do that, but who's to say they can't just ignore them.

Guess it beats Russian missiles having a malfunction in their guidance system and hitting a Polish airfield in response to Poland accidentially losing a hundred tanks.

Edited April 26, 20224 yr by majestic

35 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

The Moscow Times is, and always has been, a publication aimed at people with english as their first language, ie not Russians. Anyone care to guess when it got an online edition, in Russian, as a paper called the Moscow Times? It was... 2020, and they had 4 years where there was literally no Russian language version of the paper at all. It's target audience is, was, and always has been foreigners, not Russians, despite its name.

The Moscow Times was founded in Moscow 1992 by Dutch immigrant Derk Sauer  and Annemarie van Gaal. Where its headquarters remained until  March 2022.

The Moscow Times started as English language paper for tourist and expats. It started as free twice a week print. 2005 Finnish publishing group Sanoma bought it with 142M€. 2015 Sanoma sold it to  Demyan Kudryavtsev who stopped publishing printed version and moved it fully to internet. 2017 Derk Sauer bought it with Vladimir Jao and  Svetlana Korshunova. Sauer owns 19% of its stock because Russian law that does not allow foreign people own over 20% of Russian media.

The Moscow Times started Russian language version in 2020, it is currently blocked in Russia. English version is still freely accessible. 

Yes, I too managed to find the wikipedia article for the Moscow Times, though it was certainly a struggle. Doesn't really dispute anything I said though, does it? To whit:

"Chinese military bases are purely defensive, and only built with the permission of the countries' governments. Why is the US so concerned? After all, the US says nato bases 800km from Moscow are nothing for Russia to worry about and purely defensive, and their deployments are entirely between them and their partners, so what's the issue with a Chinese base 3000km away from Canberra approved by its partners? The US has 700+ overseas bases, including multiple in countries that don't want them there."

Thankfully here in NZ we have the Auckland Bugle, a genuine Kiwi journalistic institution since 1992 (OK, it's never been owned by actual New Zealanders- but it's had english translations from Chinese for the past two years! That makes it kiwi as pavlova and buzzy bees!) which has the bravery to publish this truth instead of what the NZ Government wants them to...

Yeah, nah.

6 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Yes, I too managed to find the wikipedia article for the Moscow Times, though it was certainly a struggle. Doesn't really dispute anything I said though, does it? To whit:

My message was to give details about The Moscow Times as people in this thread didn't seen to be familiar with it and where it operates and is it Russian publication.

Ah ok, apologies for the snark then.

19 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

You know, that does sound plausible. There's no way it should, but it does.

Can anyone point to any other kind of reason that would make displaying three copies of The Sims relevant in any way? (Also, why would a single person have three copies. Even that is a bit odd.) It does look like these guys had no idea what they were doing.

Why? Good question. I know people that spends a lot of money on The Sims' expansions, but even them don't own three copies of the game.

 

That's not three copies of the game. Those look like expansion packs (Outdoor Living Stuff and Master Suite Stuff, can't make out which one the one on the left is). Who even buys boxed expansions these days is another matter, but AFAIK there's something of an illegal CD market in Russia still.

Honestly, it is dumb to put copies of the Sims of all games alongside supposed nazi paraphernalia, but perhaps not dumber than going "hurr durr fsb cant tell difference between computer game and phone cards  😂". The theory about it being a tool to give teh gay to unsuspecting Russian youths works much better.

But whatever, it's twatter anyway, so, eh.

Edited April 27, 20224 yr by 213374U
left/right hard

52 minutes ago, 213374U said:

The theory about it being a tool to give teh gay to unsuspecting Russian youths works much better.

It does. But the "undecipherable signature" is even dumber than confusing sim cards with The Sims and it is right there, so who knows...

I've read that some Sims 4 stuff was banned in russia because it has the gay in it. Maybe they are making this guy look gay? Could also explain the weird green wig.

This is exactly what  I would expect from the EU sanctions due to Putins War

 

Its for security reasons I imagine, how do you know we can trust that Russian tree? Maybe it says " I am doing a tree training exercise " and suddenly ...BOOM !!! It invades the garden next door and then says its not a tree invasion but merely a " special root operation "

 

Its best for everyone that all Russian trees are disqualified because we just cant trust them 

I've been silent for almost a month, to let things go on without my commentary. 

A month later, we are on a verge of huge food and energy crisis globally, and significant economic pain. 

As for gas cut off, Poland will likely cope withbit by paying extra premius, as the infrastructure and reserves should keep it going safely until end of year, but at a significantly higher cost. 

Bulgaria is a different story, and I'm waiting for German reaction. If they will not fold, the economic collapse will make for interesting headlines in Euro zone. 

33 minutes ago, Darkpriest said:

I've been silent for almost a month, to let things go on without my commentary. 

A month later, we are on a verge of huge food and energy crisis globally, and significant economic pain. 

As for gas cut off, Poland will likely cope withbit by paying extra premius, as the infrastructure and reserves should keep it going safely until end of year, but at a significantly higher cost. 

Bulgaria is a different story, and I'm waiting for German reaction. If they will not fold, the economic collapse will make for interesting headlines in Euro zone. 

Welcome back Dark " waves" 

Ive missed your comments . No need to worry, we still not seeing the collapse of the US economy and the EU

By the way did you read this link, this is the coming reality for the Russian economy. This should concern you immensely 

https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2022-04-19/russias-central-bank-says-that-the-economy-will-plummet-in-the-second-trimester-and-putin-is-ignoring-the-warning.html

 

 

 

 

 

36 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Welcome back Dark " waves" 

Ive missed your comments . No need to worry, we still not seeing the collapse of the US economy and the EU

By the way did you read this link, this is the coming reality for the Russian economy. This should concern you immensely 

https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2022-04-19/russias-central-bank-says-that-the-economy-will-plummet-in-the-second-trimester-and-putin-is-ignoring-the-warning.html

 

 

 

 

 

Why would it worry me? Making money on stupidity of others is a great opportunity. 

So far I've been correct on bond yields and overpriced **** like Netflix and some other 'disruptive' names. 

I've been paying a price on some commodities as China went to a stand still, yet still with that oil is above 100...

33 minutes ago, Darkpriest said:

Why would it worry me? Making money on stupidity of others is a great opportunity. 

So far I've been correct on bond yields and overpriced **** like Netflix and some other 'disruptive' names. 

I've been paying a price on some commodities as China went to a stand still, yet still with that oil is above 100...

Geez, no need to shout and get so mad at me 

I was just saying the Wests economy hasnt crashed and Russia is about to enter dark economic times in the next 2-3 quarters , dont blame me...blame Putins War 

And another economic escalation:
Renault auto-industry shares in Russia nationalized.

Technically force-sold for one ruble, but that is what it pretty much amounts to. 

DJI, the Chinese drone maker, halts business in Russia and Ukraine - CNN

Looks like Germany, Austria and Slovakia folded and are paying in rubbles (plus Hungary) and ten more are setting up rubble accounts.