They are not used to having a say in these matters. The penalty for voicing one's opinion can be severe: a lengthy stay in a prison in Siberia. They first need to lose their children in the war, and then enough of their neighbors need to lose their children, and then the grumbling begins and gets louder from there. The only grumbling that Putin has heard so far is old ladies (who know they aren't going to be killed or sent to Siberia) complaining about the price of eggs. No one wants to be the first to step forward. What is surprising to me is that there are not more cases of the intended victims of Russia's "meat wave" attacks turning on their Russian officers and shooting them, like they did earlier in the war. Maybe it is happening, but Russia is doing a better job of preventing the news from getting out.
And the Russian economy is living on borrowed time, as inflation keeps ticking upward. The Russian economy is not geared towards building long-term growth and assets; it's geared toward building targets for Ukraine to destroy, as Russia's own infrastructure falls apart. That has "collapse waiting to happen" written all over it. No country can sustain war indefinitely.
In fact, Russia's economy is doing so well that they've idled over 35 passenger planes from their domestic fleet(s). For some reason (hint: starts with an "s", and rhymes with hanctions), they cannot keep their planes properly maintained, and are afraid that the national airline, Aeroflop (TM), will live up to its name. Another sign on how well the economy is doing: commercial airplane traffic has dropped 7% this year. Military airplane traffic has allegedly dropped 40%, but that's only because Ukraine has been blasting the Shi'ite out of Russian military aircraft in the air and on the ground. Russia forced to ground dozens of planes as sanctions prevent repairs
“Keep dreaming. The US shadow economy is bigger than the Russian entire economy. Russia is a failed country full of people who fail to secure their own freedom.” Are you one of those crazy MAGA-type election deniers ?
Another victory for Ukraine: partisans deep inside Russia have blown up another section of the railway used to transport North Korean weapons to Russia. The twist? The head of the operation is a Russian, who is protesting the war. Also from the article: Ukraine received its third Patriot missile system from Germany. Also, a Ukrainian drone reportedly hit a Russian gunpowder factory in Kotovsk and blew it up. Ukrainian partisans blow up railway carrying North Korean weapons
Problem for Ukraine: you can repair a section of rail in a day. But Russia is taking down Ukraine’s entire power grid. Again, it’s Ukrainian pin pricks vs. Russian hammer blows.
This is the best video I’ve seen yet on assessing Russian weapon systems vs. the West based on international arms sales and performance in Russia’s last couple of wars. Some of this data I was aware of more than a year ago and thought was still classified, but I guess it’s open source now.
Weapons ? Russians don’t need no stinking weapons. Sources on this thread maintain they were down to shovels, at one point, and they still took the Stronghold of Strongholds, Bakhmut.
https://www.reuters.com/world/putin...-remains-unchanged-despite-debate-2024-07-04/ ASTANA, July 4 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he believed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was sincere about wanting to end the war in Ukraine, but that he did not know how Trump planned to do so if elected. "The fact that Mr Trump, as a presidential candidate, declares that he is ready and wants to stop the war in Ukraine, we take this completely seriously," Putin said. "I am not, of course, familiar with possible proposals for how he plans to do this. This is the key question. But I have no doubt that he means it sincerely, and we support it (the idea of ending the war)."
Saw an interesting video the other day that said the Russians dug their own grave. Basically they have oversold and exaggerated its defensive capabilities on weapons for years and each time they make a new claim we develop real capabilities to counter something they never really had. So in essence we keep moving light years ahead of them developing defenses for phantom weapons they never really had in place. He listed a whole bunch of their promised failures and shortcomings that I can’t recall. One I think was hypersonic missiles.
Such ignorance, Lee Harvey. Russia would be lucky to be able to get to the damaged rail in a day (as remote as parts of the trans-Siberian railroad are), much less fix it. And if the saboteur was any good at what he was doing, he would have timed the explosion with the arrival of a shipment of weapons from Fat B@stard. Cleaning up a regular train derailment is difficult enough, but a train full of explosives? Very dangerous. Most people in the cleanup crew would prefer to live to see the next morning. And the tracks need to be reasonably clear before the repair work can get underway. That's why it is a newsworthy event. Also, it might be possible to repair a power plant in a relatively short time, depending on the severity of the damage. The power plants in Ukraine are not very remote from the repair equipment and personnel. Maybe you should be talking about Russian pin pricks vs. Ukrainian hammer blows.
Here is your answer. In addition to receiving cash gifts from Europe and elsewhere, Ukraine has also been taking out loans to finance their country at war. Ukraine intends to pay back the loans after they defeat Russia. So there you have it. Ukraine goes to war... with Western moneymen
