Vergeltungswaffe

Since the day the wall fell Russia has simply been too corrupt to help.  Under Yeltsin it was incompetently and chaotically corrupt, under Putin the state has been very efficiently looted by a small number of his friends. While the petty officials just publish a rate sheet of the bribes required for their services, or simply to get out of the way.  At a $120 a barrel there was enough to steal and still feed everyone, at $60 per barrel its a problem.

That Canadian Tank Destroyer commander sure knows how to get situational awareness.
 
He and his accompanying Sherman cruisers were in the process of demolishing a couple of Stug platoons -- Sauerkopfs -- somewhere near the Gustav Line in May 44 -- this was a lull in the fighting where the TD was 50 yards behind the Shermans.
 
Week one of CMFI + GL + 3.0 -- All it needs from what I can see it hit decals off the tracks. Other than that, it's pretty darn perfect.
 
Stripes out.

Thank's Vergeltungswaffe,
 
Regards
 
Lane 

Yea, I like the old dreary look with neutral colors. This is a war gaming site not some Disney fairy princess crap!
 
ps. can you please add some more cute emoticons!

The debt is higher than the assets and the profits that were supposed to pay that debt have vanished.  Yes Russia has money, but that money is fast disappearing when the financial controls are being used to try and protect oligarch friends and poor foreign policy versus the Russian economy.  It gives me no satisfaction to see that millions of Russians are again going to suffer from a leadership that doesn't care about them.  It is true pretty much everywhere, but I think Russia is going to be the poster child next year for disaster economies.
 
More stuff.
 
Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm, summed up the financial dangers facing Russia in one tweet:

"Yesterday the ruble had its biggest drop in 16 years. Today, its biggest drop in 16 years again. 16 years ago Russia defaulted."

Bremmer was referring to Russia's economic meltdown in 1998, when interest rates reached 100 percent annually, Russia defaulted on its debt, and its economic woes spread to other developing economies.

There's one big difference today. Back then, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was on good terms with the West, which came rushing in with billions of dollars to help stabilize Russia's economy. It was a painful period for Russia, but eventually the crisis eased, and the following year Yeltsin named a new prime minister — Vladimir Putin.

Putin's antagonistic relationship with the West means no such help is likely this time.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/12/16/371167500/has-vladimir-putin-just-overplayed-his-hand

No, this is more.. I don't even know the word for it, the idea of what Putin's actions would be or the kind of things he does gets greatly exaggerated and sometimes things are just said and believed because you know, he's Putin - of course he is a mainaical crazy man twirling his mustache waiting to nuke the world...

The truth about Putin and the way things work in my country are people like him are concerned about their personal power. Toss a nuke and his power is gone. Really being president is a show off thing for him. He's not an idiot and he is not going to destroy his kingdom by throwing a hissy fit and launching nukes, certainly not over Ukraine.