Ukraine Conflict - "An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war"

[BruceVC]

3 hours ago, rjshae said:

I wonder if we'll start seeing large nets as a defense against "suicide" drones? Perhaps around the power stations anyway.

Do they work, where has this type of strategy been used before? It sounds interesting 

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

Here's some red meat for a bunch of you - https://ekspress.delfi.ee/artikkel/120083694/human-life-has-no-value-there-baltic-counterintelligence-officers-speak-candidly-about-russian-cruelty

 

Thats a very interesting read and some good insight into the reasons we see war crimes and other appalling behavior from parts of the Russian military 

[xzar_monty]

I read some interesting comments by Margarita Zavadskaya who is dedicated to the study of Russian government and politics. Some of her points:

- Russia's current constitution (from 1993) essentially ensures that the president can bypass all other elements of government that ostensibly make decisions. So, the biggest problem in Russian politics is that if someone unstable or unhinged happens to rise to power, the system can do absolutely nothing about it. There are no controls. (So, as pointed out by other people, the Duma is mostly for show: none of the Russian parties have any meaning.)

- Were things to change, we have no idea what the political map in Russia would look like. No one knows how much support the various political ideologies and ideas have.

- Most Russians are not nationalists, they are imperialists.

- One of the strongest government-opposing phenomena in Russia today is the feminist anti-war movement.[*]

- The liberals in Russia live mostly in big cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, and it's precisely them who are currently fleeing the country.

 

[*] "One of the strongest" probably still means "not strong at all".

[Mamoulian War]

First of many to come?
 

 

[Zoraptor]

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Do they work, where has this type of strategy been used before? It sounds interesting 

Barrage balloons used a similar principle. Supposedly- personally, I am extremely skeptical of the claim- they brought down several hundred V1s over Britain in WW2.

Nets are impractical though as you can't balance the size/ weight/ strength requirements.

[Mamoulian War]

Estonia has yesterday recognised Russia as State Sponsor of Terrorism. In May Lithuania recognised it as a first country. And in August Latvia as a second.

 

And allegedly the resolution about Russia as State sponsor of Terrorism is scheduled for a vote in EU parliament in November as well. Allegedly, due to the fact, that I was able to find only Ukrainian and Azerbaijani media reporting on it yet
 

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/10/17/7372356/ 

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

Estonia has yesterday recognised Russia as State Sponsor of Terrorism. In May Lithuania recognised it as a first country. And in August Latvia as a second.

 

And allegedly the resolution about Russia as State sponsor of Terrorism is scheduled for a vote in EU parliament in November as well. Allegedly, due to the fact, that I was able to find only Ukrainian and Azerbaijani media reporting on it yet
 

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/10/17/7372356/ 

Isn't there a subtle difference between being a state that is a "sponsor of terrorism" (e.g. Saudi Arabia funding Al Qaeda) and a state that is a "terrorist state" in itself (like Russia, putting the smack down on its neighbours because they smell funny)?

 

Edit: I suppose you could lump Saudi Arabia in both categories, as they seem to gleefully carpet bomb civilians in Yemen. Estimated casualties in Ukraine 7000, Yemen 350000. Of course the latter has neither natural gas nor wheat crops, so it's not "important" enough to worry about.

[pmp10]

Russians are starting civilian evacuation of Kherson.
I wonder if troops are next?

Edited October 19, 2022 by pmp10

[Mamoulian War]

42 minutes ago, Gorth said:

Isn't there a subtle difference between being a state that is a "sponsor of terrorism" (e.g. Saudi Arabia funding Al Qaeda) and a state that is a "terrorist state" in itself (like Russia, putting the smack down on its neighbours because they smell funny)?

 

Edit: I suppose you could lump Saudi Arabia in both categories, as they seem to gleefully carpet bomb civilians in Yemen. Estimated casualties in Ukraine 7000, Yemen 350000. Of course the latter has neither natural gas nor wheat crops, so it's not "important" enough to worry about.

From what I understand, both terms are used for the same thing. The difference is only the name in different jurisdictions of different countries.

[xzar_monty]

Not content with the gall of holding referenda on the territory of another sovereign nation (!), Putin has now declared martial law on the four supposedly-annexed areas.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-declares-martial-law-four-unilaterally-annexed-regions-ukraine-2022-10-19/?fbclid=IwAR3wRs9H7L-zMPx8r8CcJ4ExUTEyZ3TYM1AlmgQKtmQjnp-IgqxwlEBEu80

[Lexx]

What changes because of that?

[Elerond]

3 minutes ago, Lexx said:

What changes because of that?

Russian military has more legal rights to order people around and force them to things. It seem like a way to combat against low morale among Russian troops that are ordered to control civilians on those areas than trying to change anything that Russians are already doing.

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, pmp10 said:

Russians are starting civilian evacuation of Kherson.
I wonder if troops are next?

Same time, I'd say. Civilians are good cover

[Raithe]

 

[Lexx]

"to live as we once lived in the Soviet Union" ... no thanks. : x

[Malcador]

8 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Thats a very interesting read and some good insight into the reasons we see war crimes and other appalling behavior from parts of the Russian military 

Not really, teeters on propaganda almost and can be replaced by the words "They only understand force". 

[Gfted1]

Russia lost its most advanced air defense system in Ukraine (defence-blog.com)

[Mamoulian War]

3 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Not content with the gall of holding referenda on the territory of another sovereign nation (!), Putin has now declared martial law on the four supposedly-annexed areas.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-declares-martial-law-four-unilaterally-annexed-regions-ukraine-2022-10-19/?fbclid=IwAR3wRs9H7L-zMPx8r8CcJ4ExUTEyZ3TYM1AlmgQKtmQjnp-IgqxwlEBEu80

 

 

[Mamoulian War]

I’ve read today few “analysts” predicting, that Surovikin was appointed as a General, so all of the blame for the retreat from Kherson, would be on his shoulders. Which is In line with many “coincidences, that all of the generals in Russia since Yeltsin, who started to became popular had either an “accident”, or have been discredited as a part of anti-coup prevention purge. We probably know in few weeks, if there is some merit to their words, or someone is just talking out of his ass again

[rjshae]

20 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Do they work, where has this type of strategy been used before? It sounds interesting 

I don't know about static nets, but several nations are looking into drone-carried nets. I wouldn't think it would need much weight to tangle up a drones engines. Would fish net work? Perhaps.

[bugarup]

7 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

I’ve read today few “analysts” predicting, that Surovikin was appointed as a General, so all of the blame for the retreat from Kherson, would be on his shoulders. Which is In line with many “coincidences, that all of the generals in Russia since Yeltsin, who started to became popular had either an “accident”, or have been discredited as a part of anti-coup prevention purge. We probably know in few weeks, if there is some merit to their words, or someone is just talking out of his ass again

Edited October 20, 2022 by bugarup
Sigh. Forum's eating my posts again :(

[BruceVC]

https://news.yahoo.com/russia-annexed-ukrainian-regions-under-190512938.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

This is exactly what was predicted, Russia is losing the conventional  war in Ukraine so they illegally annex the eastern regions and claim these "  are sovereign Russian territories " and threaten tactical nukes 

If the Russian military hadn't been so  incompetent and demonstrated a long list of failures Putin wouldn't  be making these egregious suggestions 

 

[xzar_monty]

18 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Russia lost its most advanced air defense system in Ukraine (defence-blog.com)

Interesting news but poor writing, in my view. Or perhaps they expect the reader to know quite a lot. Here's what I don't think the article makes quite clear: does Russia only have one of these systems and has it lost it now (sounds odd), or did it just happen to lose one of many? The headline and the first sentence would suggest there was ever only one of them.

[xzar_monty]

Russian television as happy as ever:

Also, very hard to say if this is good news (Russia retreating) or bad news (Russia is preparing for some kind of Big Nasty Strike) or both or neither.

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by xzar_monty

[Lexx]

Some interesting things:

• Now 7 Russian drone pilots in Norway of which at least one is clearly an operative for their government: https://dronedj.com/2022/10/19/norway-russian-drone-pilot-arrest/

• Sweden has lost more than 100(!) speeding cameras since August. Someone takes them down and steals them. Suspicions are aimed at Russia but nothing proven. Question is: Who else needs 100 very special cameras suitable for drones and restricted from buying, in a short period of time? https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/KzExwy/fartkameror-stulna-och-forstorda

• Shetland lost its SECOND underwater cable to mainland UK. One cable is possible to lose to fishing and such, but two in a week is....let's say unlikely.https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63326102?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

Stolen from reddit.