War in Ukraine

Of course.

Biolabs: Russia and QAnon have the same false conspiracy theory about Ukraine - CNN

The Russians have called a security council meeting claiming the US and Ukraine are developing & planning to use chemical/biological weapons against Russian forces/Russia. Apparently this is also circling Q circles.

Can Q & Trump/Putin folks do everyone a favor & move to Russia? Please??

 

Hang on for some news-triggered whipsawing of the markets.

 

From CNN live...

"Attack on Ukrainian capital could happen "at any moment," brother of Kyiv mayor says

Wladimir Klitschko, a member of Ukraine's territorial defense forces, former boxing champion and brother of Kyiv’s mayor, told CNN that Russian troops have been attacking areas in the entire country of Ukraine today, with their main target being the capital of Kyiv.

"In the next upcoming days, we're expecting significant attack on the capital. They are regrouping. They're trying to find different strategies and trying to find the right way and the right timing. So every hour counts, and then we're expecting an attack on the capital at any moment, especially, as I said, the next coming days. Their target is the capital," Klitschko said.
He said the will of the Ukrainian people remains strong but they need support.

"We have lot of equipment, military equipment, and we'll do anything possible, we're trying to outsmart the Russian army as much as we can. I don't know how long we're going to hold up, but we're going to hold up as long as we can. What's really necessary is international support. You guys need to isolate Russia and Russian economy," he said.

"This is important to understand to the Western world and our allies to act now. We cannot wait for weeks or months for certain decisions. It's about hours and minutes. We need support — financial, humanitarian, military equipment. We're going to take care of ourselves, trust us," he added."

......
The sheer strength, knowing the West isn't going to help them & they're alone in this (other than supplies). I both admire them & feel sorry for them. No words can help. And that's all the West is willing to give them. If they survive they won't forget that.

 

More delusion...

"Putin claims Russia and Belarus will actually benefit from Western sanctions

From CNN's Sarah Dean

Western sanctions are an opportunity for Russia to strengthen its technological and economic sovereignty, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

“Recent years have shown that where Westerners imposed restrictions against us, we acquired new competencies and restored old ones at a new technological level," Putin said in opening remarks of his in-person meeting with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.

“This is a time of opportunity to move towards strengthening technological and economic sovereignty,” Putin added.

Putin also said he believes Russia and Belarus will get through these difficulties and will even “acquire more competencies, more opportunities to feel independent, self-sufficient, and ultimately benefit [from them], as it was the case in previous years.”"

 

Belarus also agreeing with the "this is good for us" spiel, and claiming Ukraine was planning chemical/biological attacks on Belarus, and that he was thankful Russia had taken control of the nuclear power plants.

 

I mean, if you take a look at the nations we have imposed heavy sanctions on (Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, NK etc), its hard to say they have achieved their stated goal of weakening their respective governments positions vis a vis their populace. And they have often found novel solutions to technical and economic problems. Its not that delusional, even though he's putting a coat of sugar on it. Its perfectly reasonable to believe that in continuing to isolate Russia (which we have slowly done by NATO expansion and other moves for decades now), and by extension its citizens, they will rally around the regime, even if only for lack of other options. And of course, this will serve to reinforce the belief that those moves were all necessary in the first place. Anyways crippling Russias economy and isolating them will certainly not create conditions for them to embrace liberal democracy anytime soon. Quite the opposite.

 

I don’t think it’s fair to say the west is giving them “just words”, pretty sure giving them a bunch of missiles has also helped, let alone the literally BILLIONS in aide just out of the U.S. Throw in sanctions which are both unprecedented and costly at home. It’s more than “words”.

The only thing NATO haven’t done is engaged in combat. Yes, that might sway this battle, but it would also certainly escalate the war including possible global war if China decides to “side” with Russia, as they very likely would. Would also probably cause a near instant shellacking of Ukraine, including possible chemical or nuclear weapons, rather than this slow slog. It’s frustrating to watch, but there is no “quick” way to force Russia’s concession.

 

Especially when many of them were young conscripts who don't want to be there

 

All the support vehicles that have tires rather than tracks are easy targets for regular ammo that can easily pierce the tires. They can be shot at with hunting type rifles with scopes from a far distance. How many there are I don’t know? I’ve seen some in videos.

 

One of my coworkers is from Brazil. She has a friend whose daughter is going to med school in Moscow. She told me that when Russia first attacked it was business as usual. The daughter is arriving back in Brazil tonight. She was told that she would continue her education online and she could do her rotations in Brazil. It would seem that the mood in Moscow has changed tremendously.

 

It’s true sanctions have historically failed to “remove the dictator”.

But all these countries are clearly weakened by them over the long term, which weakens their ability to project strength outside their own country. There might be a perverse relationship where it allows them more dominance over their own people.

My take is if sanctions were ever to work, it must happen right at the point where the economy is getting destroyed. Right at that inflection point where the people have to see their world changing. Once the regime survives without a popular uprising or internal military coup, it is unlikely to happen after that point (as we see with long term sanctions in Cuba and NK). Unfortunately propaganda is strong, and with media almost totally locked down in Russia we should probably expect very little. Yet, there really is no other option but to impose sanctions in the near term.

 

Do combat vehicles have a form of run flat tires?

 

Syria seems like a good example of what happens when you combine an isolated, weakened authoritarian leader with what is basically a crippled economy. Russia is a massive country so it could end up as Syria writ large. And with a huge nuclear arsenal to boot. So imagine a scenario where the Russian government is weakened by an economy in ruins, various factions rise up (including Chechens and Islamists) creating a civil war/failed state, where various countries are arming competing factions, pursuing their own interests, the emergence of breakaway states (potentially with nuclear weapons), etc. Not to mention a massive refugee crisis, a vast movement of people flowing into Europe. Keeping the boot on Russia can have blowback. I hope these sanctions are viewed as temporary until this crisis can be resolved, by all parties.

 

Another issue, from what I heard, is that they were having issues with dry-rot on the tires. The cracks eventually allowed the tires to air-down and end up completely flat.

 

For them to be temporary, Putin has to care. He doesn't. He's now trying to sell this as a good thing. As long as China helps them he won't care. When propping up and dragging the rotting carcas that is Russia gets to be too much then China may have to let them finish sinking.

Ironically this may help us with China. Hear me out. They're going to be spending all this time & money constantly supporting, supplying, and trading with Russia. Drains their coffers/distracts them. Dealing with Russia also comes with dealing with sanctions, which would affect their business, affecting their economy.

So indirectly I think this weakens China. Or maybe I'm being optimistic.

 

That is optimistic. Western capital pulling out of Russia creates an opening for all the people on the sidelines to insert their capital into the vacuum. The Gulf States, Israel, China, etc.

 

Well, they are adopting. According to recent state elite photos, they have dispersed from groupings into the forest and other remote, covered positions.

 

This does not hurt China. It greatly helps them. It causes more countries to come into their sphere of influence. The more distrust that is sewn in Western powers, the better it is for China. That’s why they’re jumping in the fake stories that Ukraine and the US were building biological weapons in Ukraine.

 

The hearing is today so interested to see what evidence they claim they have. From something I posted in the Hunter Biden thread, all I could find is yes there is a biological research facility but it seems to be their version of the CDC. The WHO was advising them to destroy all pathogens in case of an accident. That's it. That's a far cry from a bioweapons facility in collaboration with the US to launch biologic/chemical warfare on Russia.

If that's what they're claiming then every lab in the world would need to be shut down because they're all "biological weapons"...including China.

 

I was going to say something along these lines. I imagine that the Russian government has paid for modern tires, the question is how much of the money wasn't taken up by graft.