The gloves look like they’re coming off. Russia warned citizens to move away from certain targets, so the artillery/cruise missile/air attacks are likely to start in earnest.
They didn’t tell anyone to move away from the residential block that was struck in Kharkiv this afternoon. But strike it they did anyway. They’re insane.
Timex
4900
See, this is what I first thought, when I heard there was a “40 mile long convoy”.
To me, the idea of having some super huge convoy of vehicles like that just makes a huge, juicy target. Because you don’t need to destroy the convoy… you just need to stop one or two vehicles in it, to disrupt it and fuck everything up. If you hit it in two places, you basically screw up all the stuff in between. Now, it’s not like they can’t reform, but it causes problems.
And/or incompetent. Either way, they’re establishing rationalizations for urban strikes, which is a bad sign.
With you but check the footage. That isn’t incompetence. Looks like a direct hit to me - in that it’s a long low block and it’s struck pretty much centrally. Certainly not cluster or grad etc.
Yes, that’s my (poor) understanding.
Aaaaand I’m posting this, though it is completely unconfirmed except for some circumstantial evidence (in the thread proper) and it can very likely be propaganda or exaggeration. It is a very interesting read, though, even if it turns out it’s not true, so I decided to post after thinking about it:
Edit: also:
Maybe another way to think of it is: if you had every ruble in circulation, you could not afford to buy every bitcoin in circulation.
I don’t thing it’s anything new. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1200/RR1253/RAND_RR1253.pdf and https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2700/RR2779/RAND_RR2779.pdf
What if by “first invasion” we mean the storming of government buildings in Donbas by Russia-paid thugs and mercenaries? Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014) - Wikipedia
Well, it depends on how you went about it. Especially at the moment there could be a meaningful difference in what you’d get if you tried to go RUB—>USD/USDT—>BTC (the conventional route) vs RUB–>BTC direct, even leaving aside the practical difficulties.
Jeeebuz look at that mud patch. Even with tracks it seems a heavy vehicle like that would get stuck (if the story is legit the Russians probably just left it there, I’m guessing).
That seems curiously non-responsive, sorry. You agree that Russia has territorial ambitions in Eastern Europe, or you don’t agree that Russia has territorial ambitions in Eastern Europe? Which one?
Apologies if this was already posted but I didn’t see it and the territorial ambitions discussion made me think of it;
Edited to correct tweet
PS - and yes, he’s that dumb
Russia already occupies the Transnistria region.
That said, that is some map. WTF with the US First Cavalry Division patch on the map legend?
I should be more precise. Ukraine refused direct talks with separatists. This is a Ukrainian source:
From the video’s description: “The Ukrainian government stressed multiple times that they are for “the dialog with the people.” But in Putin’s understanding, the people who Kiev should talk to are Pushilin and Pasechnik. The Ukrainian side always stressed that under no condition it’s going to negotiate with them.”
“They’ll see the Big Board!”
Actually if Putin intends to seize Transnistria than he intends to take all of Ukraine.
I’d swear that is Jimmy Doohan.
CraigM
4916
I mean certainly that a group like Rand Corp would think about and consider the possibility is far from shocking. I think everyone aware of baseline geopolitics knew Russia has geopolitical interests in acquiring territory in the area, some extending since the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
But this does change the nature of how we view them when evaluating the likelihood of them acting on it.
Its kind of the difference between me saying ‘I would like a 10 million dollar house’ and me going out and robbing a bank so I can buy it. Certainly one can easily look a premium property and desire to have it, but there is a long gap between doing so and taking violent action to achieve this.
We’ve known they want the territory, what we didn’t know is if they were willing to go to this length to acquire it.
You seem to ignore that Putin caused the crisis he’s resolving and also that the diplomatic maneuvers he proposes don’t actually mean anything.
It’s a bit like a husband asking the UN to a conference to define the conditions upon which he’ll stop beating his wife, then when she refuses to attend, complains this is why he has to beat her. It’s using democratic processes to achieve undemocratic ends.
