Russia vs Ukraine anyone watching this ignite?

[Tombs]

We also don’t have foreign invaders blowing up our cities and actively trying to kill our leaders

This isn't a sports ball game.

You don't have to cheer for a team.

 

[Keith_Indy]

Interesting... if true, of course...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: 'Damage' to nuclear reactor revealed in images after 'three direct hits'

Donald Trump will press Ukraine to give up territory if he is re-elected as US president, according to a US media report. Meanwhile, our question form is open again to submit a question for our military analysts.

news.sky.com

A rather astonishing statistic here from a US official - who implied that Russia had lost around 40% of its fixed wing and rotary wing capability - ie its military aircraft.

Speaking to Foreign Policy's national security reporter Jack Detsch, the official also said that while the Kremlin had launched more than 300 sorties into Ukraine in the last 24 hours, they were not "venturing very far and very long" into airspace - suggesting a wariness around the potential to lose more aircraft.

 

[smokingman]

Is the point to show every one of the players is at least a bit compromised?

Putin's mysterious net worth complicates Biden's decision to sanction him

Biden said Putin has launched a "war of choice" against Ukraine. So why isn't Russia's president targeted by sanctions?

fortune.com

Stanislav Belkovsky, a Russian political analyst and Putin critic, estimated that Putin had a net worth of $70 billion in 2012 for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, based on claims that the Russian president has stakes in Russian oil and gas companies like Gazprom and Surgutneftegas.

Anders Aslund, Swedish economist and author of Russia’s Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy, gives a higher estimate, arguing that Putin has somewhere between $100 billion and $150 billion in assets. Aslund based his calculation on the wealth of Putin's confidants. The economist estimates Putin's friends hold between $500 million and $2 billion each on behalf of the Russian president.

Putin's official salary is $140000, by the way

Zelenskyy isn't trying to cross the Hungarian border with $28 million in cash nor has he attacked Russia militarily

You still attempt some kind of false equivalency. Why?

No amount of financial corruption absolves Russia in this matter

No doubt about it Putin is like most politicians anywhere. The ones that stay in very long grown insane levels of wealth. He gets his cut to be sure,just like most of the ones here do. That last spending bill our congress passed was almost half pork,making loads of money for quite a few of them.

I will and never have claimed to even like Putin. I honestly just want us out of the overthrowing nation building ******** that has been going on for 100+ years. It is not what made this a great country...it is a primary driver in the mess we are in though.

 

[smokingman]

Russia's hypersonic 'Kinzhal' missile strike claim is a dud, defense experts say

"I would not see it as a game changer," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said of the alleged launch.

justthenews.com

It would be interesting to see the actual impact area from the post I made with the flight video. It certainly looked like a missile going fast enough and appeared to have a layer of plasma around it(a sonic boom could also be heard well after it passed). But as far as I know we have never had video of the impact point. I think the videos claiming to be the impact ones are just regular smart munitions(explosive,not kinetic energy seen in them).

 

[Sylvain]

Based on my research, Putin has 2-3 adult children and an ex-wife. Most of whom live in palatial estates in France. Sylvain verified the French connection. Lol

Actually I don't think they live in France, well not the kids ... not sure about the ex-wife.
They do own villas in France though but they were empty when people broke in a few days ago.

Last I heard Putin's kids and his girlfriend/mistress where actually in Switzerland.

Putin is supposed to have four young kids with his current mistress (two 7-years old twin daughters and two sons), and two older daughter (in her 30's) with his ex-wife.

The kids are believed to be born in Switzerland.

Vladimir Putin’s mistress Alina Kabaeva is allegedly hiding in Switzerland with their four young children, sources tell Page Six.

“While Putin carries out his assault on the Ukraine, attacking innocent citizens and causing a refugee crisis, his family is holed up in a very private and very secure chalet somewhere in Switzerland — for now, at least,” a source told us.

Kabaeva, an Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast, reportedly has four children with the Russian leader, 69, but the two have never officially confirmed it.

Sources say they share 7-year-old twin daughters, who were born near Lugano, Switzerland, in February 2015. It is believed they also have two sons.

“Alina has two young boys and twin girls with Putin who were born in Switzerland,” a source told Page Six about Putin’s alleged children with Kabaeva, 38. “The kids all have Swiss passports, and I imagine she does also.”

I imagine the chalet looks like that ...

And the grounds are patrolled by FSB spetsnaz on snow mobiles.Like in Die Hard.

Or this?

Either way there's no name on the mail box and the basement is full of bodyguards.

 

[Wolfhound]

Actually I don't think they live in France, well not the kids ... not sure about the ex-wife.
They do own villas in France though but they were empty when people broke in a few days ago.

Last I heard Putin's kids and his girlfriend/mistress where actually in Switzerland.

Putin is supposed to have four young kids with his current mistress (two 7-years old twin daughters and two sons), and two older daughter (in her 30's) with his ex-wife.

The kids are believed to be born in Switzerland.




I imagine the chalet looks like that ...

And the grounds are patrolled by FSB spetsnaz on snow mobiles.Like in Die Hard.

Or this?

Either way there's no name on the mail box and the basement is full of bodyguards.

Good to know. I stand corrected. I did not know about the mistress and alleged younger children.

I have to keep reminding myself that Putin is the product of the Soviet era KGB. He has likely done some very dark things.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Good to know. I stand corrected. I did not know about the mistress and alleged younger children.

I have to keep reminding myself that Putin is the product of the Soviet era KGB. He has definitely done some very dark things.

FIFY

 

[Sylvain]

Good to know. I stand corrected. I did not know about the mistress and alleged younger children.

I have to keep reminding myself that Putin is the product of the Soviet era KGB. He has likely done some very dark things.

Well it's just rumors ... I obviously don't know if it's true or not so I'm not correcting you.

For all we know the kids could live in another country.

Switzerland is also where Kim Jung Un lived for a while and went to school.
So they don't mind dictators and keep things secret.

Speaking of Kim Jung Un I learned that his nephew (Kim Han-Sol) lived and studied in Normandy in a city not far from where I live, a few years ago.

He actually had undercover French police officers on the campus as bodyguards.
They were actually worried that his uncle would try to kidnap him in France.

Apparently sanctions don't apply to family members of dictators.

 

[printcraft]

Speaking of Kim Jung Un I learned that his nephew (Kim Han-Sol) lived and studied in Normandy in a city not far from where I live, a few years ago.

Studied in Normandy?
I thought he went to the imperial academy to be a pilot before he joined the rebellion?

 

[Sylvain]

Studied in Normandy?
I thought he went to the imperial academy to be a pilot before he joined the rebellion?

I think it's a different Han.

 

[BugI02]

No doubt about it Putin is like most politicians anywhere. The ones that stay in very long grown insane levels of wealth. He gets his cut to be sure,just like most of the ones here do. That last spending bill our congress passed was almost half pork,making loads of money for quite a few of them.

I will and never have claimed to even like Putin. I honestly just want us out of the overthrowing nation building ******** that has been going on for 100+ years. It is not what made this a great country...it is a primary driver in the mess we are in though.

I look at it a bit more jaded. While the rhetoric may not actually be just rhetoric, I see us doing to Putin in Ukraine what he did to us in Syria - that is, frustrating our intent any way he can and not being too concerned about our casualties or those of Assad was willing to induce in his own people

Given Putin's response, it seems he not too thrilled at being on the receiving end of this kind of thing. I really don't think he is crazy or unstable and I think, while the parameters of the simulation may have changed somewhat, there still is no winning scenario to nuclear war unless our leaders are perceived, correctly, as being too timid to strike back in the event of a first strike

I won't debate here whether our intentions in Syria were in any way better for ordinary Syrians than Russia's given the mess we made in Libya, but despite its scale, it is starting to seem like the usual sort of proxy war we have fought many times. We'll have to wait and see whether Putin is still a rational actor or not. I fully expect him to push Biden even harder because he can

 

[DragonGunner]

Trump interview today asked what he would do, since this mess got started, as of right now. Would you send in the fighters from Poland.....he said they are like 40-50 year old planes and probably would just get shot down. He would send drones and lots of them, way more effective. Also next time Putin said the word "Nukes" he would get told not to ever say that word again, we got nukes also. He put down NATO and said Russia wasn't going to stop now with just Ukraine, this will continue because no one is standing up to Putin. He would also bring gas and oil prices down, way down, When they are high they only aided our enemies with more $$$ in their pockets to wage war. Putin telling us we better not do anything, like we are the aggressors, while killing thousands of civilians. Its just not going to stop with Ukraine. Under Bush Russia took Georgia and under Obama/Biden he took more, now under Biden he is taking more and more. Under my watch he took nothing.....why is that?

 

[KG1]

I look at it a bit more jaded. While the rhetoric may not actually be just rhetoric, I see us doing to Putin in Ukraine what he did to us in Syria - that is, frustrating our intent any way he can and not being too concerned about our casualties or those of Assad was willing to induce in his own people

Given Putin's response, it seems he not too thrilled at being on the receiving end of this kind of thing. I really don't think he is crazy or unstable and I think, while the parameters of the simulation may have changed somewhat, there still is no winning scenario to nuclear war unless our leaders are perceived, correctly, as being too timid to strike back in the event of a first strike

I won't debate here whether our intentions in Syria were in any way better for ordinary Syrians than Russia's given the mess we made in Libya, but despite its scale, it is starting to seem like the usual sort of proxy war we have fought many times. We'll have to wait and see whether Putin is still a rational actor or not. I fully expect him to push Biden even harder because he can

But you still believe there is a winning scenario to be had in a nuclear war that warrants a US strike on China right now. Correct? Do you think China would be too timid to strike back?

Just go ahead and do it right now without concern about a global fallout from doing so. Who do you believe would support such a unilateral blockbuster move with far reaching consequences? I don't even think our current allies would support it.

 

[BigMoose]

 

[KG1]

Russia's hypersonic 'Kinzhal' missile strike claim is a dud, defense experts say

"I would not see it as a game changer," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said of the alleged launch.

justthenews.com

There seems to be growing skepticism here by defense experts.

DoD official: Russia’s hypersonic missile boast ‘a bit of a head-scratcher’

Russia’s claim about the hypersonic missile has drawn scrutiny from arms observers in recent days, and the senior DoD official described the weapon’s alleged deployment as confusing.

www.politico.com

 

[BugI02]

But you still believe there is a winning scenario to be had in a nuclear war that warrants a US strike on China right now. Correct? Do you think China would be too timid to strike back?

Just go ahead and do it right now without concern about a global fallout from doing so. Who do you believe would support such a unilateral blockbuster move with far reaching consequences? I don't even think our current allies would support it.

The Chinese have a MUCH smaller nuclear arsenal (~450) making a first strike wiping out their entire stockpile possible

Small yield precisely targeted warheads would minimize the fallout and a decapitation strike as part of it would leave a very authoritarian country without any authority

A couple of SSBNs using depressed trajectory missiles could do the job, and the element of surprise would be huge. Have to do the Norks at the same time

I wouldn't ask if anyone else supported it, they are a clear and present danger waging low intensity war on us at all level on all battlefields. Did we ask our allies in The Two for permission to use the bomb on Japan?

I am a firm believer in fight them now or fight them later when we are at much more of a disadvantage

I suspect the Russians might reconsider nuclear threats as well in light of the massive arsenal we would still have. Sure, it could all go wrong but so could meddling in Ukraine. At least neutering China would solve a lot of problems for us

 

[Keith_Indy]

Great way to secure support against Russia…

At this point I’m pretty convinced that they’re trying to break every local/national/international institution.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[Tombs]

I am a firm believer in fight them now or fight them later when we are at much more of a disadvantage

How did that work out in the Middle East?

I was sold the same exact line from the likes of Colin Powell.

I have a better idea, lets not spill our children's blood and future to settle some blood lust. There's always PMC outfits hiring, you could go join one.

 

[cobber]

Is that steel? Kind of antiquated, or?

 

[BigMoose]

Is that steel? Kind of antiquated, or?

Soviet era