sburke

Japan says disputed islands 'illegally occupied' by Russia (msn.com) Just to give Putin something else to think about

Russian official admits sanctions are crippling the economy as the country grapples with a sell-off and mass shortages (msn.com) “The sanctions imposed against Russia affected the situation in the financial sector, spurred the demand for foreign currencies, and caused fire sales of financial assets, a cash outflow from banks, and surging demand for goods,” said Elvira Nabiullina in prepared remarks first published in English on Friday. The frank assessment of Russia’s economic problems contrasts sharply with political attacks launched against the current U.S. administration for a sanctions policy that failed to force Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Presenting the CBR’s annual report to parliament this week, Nabiullina painted a picture to lawmakers of just how grim the situation was that confronted her. Depositors withdrew 2.4 trillion rubles in the first weeks after the war broke out, eating up a year’s worth of bank profits and a third of their accumulated capital cushion. Without the imposition of strict capital controls, there would have been a “a series of defaults and a domino effect” throughout the financial system, she argued. It doesn't end there, either, not by a long shot, as businesses have flashbacks to what it was like when the coronavirus pandemic hit. “Loan repayment holidays were resumed. Currently the demand for them is comparable with the first month (of) the 2020 lockdown.” Numerous moratoria have also been granted that ease the regulatory requirements for banks, with accountants effectively allowed to freeze the value of the assets on their balance sheets at artificially high pre-crisis levels. Marking them down to reflect the reality of Russia’s shrinking economy would only trigger a crippling wave of deleveraging among lenders—either through divestments, a withdrawal of credit to the economy, or a mixture of both. “Today’s scale of the regulatory easing is unprecedented,” she admitted, arguing that otherwise easing measures would not have been commensurate to the scale of problems faced. Since foreign reinsurers are cancelling their contracts with Russian companies, Nabiullina’s central bank was forced to hike the guaranteed capital to the Russian National Reinsurance company tenfold to ensure there was enough reserves to cover insured losses. Pain only now beginning While all of these measures and many more the CBR instituted may have prevented a meltdown in the banking system, companies starved of key raw materials and choked off from their export markets will experience severe pain as they scramble to adjust. “The sanctions have affected the financial market, but now they will start to impact the real economy increasingly more significantly,” the governor said. Despite inflation surpassing 9% in February, her monetary policy committee will only target a return back to 4% for 2024. Nor would they intervene if consumer prices run hot in the meantime. Nabiullina said this was a natural and inevitable process as supply chains adjust to the sanctions. The central bank, in other words, is helpless in this regard as hiking its 17% benchmark rate would not resolve the coming supply-side restrictions. “Currently this problem might not be as acute because the economy still has inventories, but we can see that the sanctions are being tightened almost every day,” Nabiullina added, predicting there was no way of telling how long this will potentially last. “Already in the second quarter, beginning of the third quarter, we will actively enter a period of structural transformation and the search for new business models for many enterprises.” Translation: Russian companies haven’t even begun to feel the pain.

thanks yes we are tracking, Kisel was dumped a few weeks back but this other dude is a new entry.

dang, gonna be a bunch of new names on the list if true Canadian Ukrainian Volunteer Russian forward C&C was destroyed today in #Kherson region by our artillery. Intel suggests there were as many as 50?! senior and junior officers there at the time. Maybe even a general if we are that lucky, and the Russians are that stupid.

Everyone knows serpentine is the correct maneuver. GK - Serpentine Pattern - YouTube

well yeah I mean of course we are. Clearly Russian tankers are doping. The turret toss competition is absolutely borked. This is just making a mockery of Intenational competition. Wait what were we talking about?

done

Seens it might be the 3rd suicide. These two and there was another one in Surrey, England, age 58, who supposedly hanged himself 2 weeks ago in his $18 million custom mansion. Mikhail Watford was worth tens of billions and told his neighbor last year that he was on Putin's list. Ukrainian oligarch Mikhail Watford found dead in UK mansion (nypost.com) The father of three — who made his fortune in oil and gas after the demise of the Soviet Union — was found hanged in his garage,

you make me blush Regarding offense, I'll be honest. I am afraid to even guess what the UA will do as 1. I'm no military expert 2. UA has shown an ability to be really creative and cognizant of their strengths and weaknesses. 3. Russia can still deal some hurt even if it does so at great cost so I am unsure how much the UA wants to give them targets they can actually hit versus the current RA strategy of simply targeting civilian infrastructure. The UA has on at least two occasions gotten complacent and allowed the RA to target barracks while still occupied.

err mot quite sure what to make of this, but my own personal concept of how I spend my time is to not waste it on folks who are clearly not working off facts and in opposition to them. I mean geez how many wrecks does Russia have to leave on the battlefield before these folks realize they should be replacing Ukraine with Russia for most of that list. I don't think that is a matter of me sticking my head in the sand, but rather not being willing to waste time on folks who just make sh1t up. This was the sum of that entire list - ...it necessarily follows that Ukraine cannot possibly be encountering critical shortages of: shortages yes. Critical shortages no. Ukraine has the full weight of NATO behind it. Granted figuring out what is the best aid to send now versus future aid is a big discussion, but there is a crap load of military and nonmilitary aid flooding into Ukraine. The UA isn't creating a protective fog. They do practice good opsec while at the same time pushing real hard for more useful aid and not just lip service (see bozo from Germany's comments). I mean c'mon, statements like this 3.6 Local authorities (warlords) have been diverting some of the best Western weapons to equip their own militias and private armies, and also selling them on the black market. Really? Just because the Russians will sell off their fuel etc for booze doesn't mean the UKR is and what militias are they referring to? This is just made-up nonsense. Sadly I am sure they believe it. Just like they probably believe the forces launched at Kiev were there just to batter the UKR army and have successfully completed their mission and some have been awarded "Guards" status as they now reorient for the real goal.

Why? I mean we do know almost all of this is just stick your head in the sand BS. What's the value add of even entertaining it? Bored? What I am curious about is what the Russian spin is on NATO these days. We aren't even giving Ukraine the best of what we have in our arsenal, but they are beating the Russian army and sank one of their capital ships. I wonder if Russians have any idea just how outmatched they are by NATO or are they still thinking they could take NATO if (reasons)

you guys are making me feel depressed. Can we get another picture of a tractor hauling a tank?

Russia's economic outlook worsens: central bank survey (msn.com) Speaking in parliament on Thursday, central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina warned of "difficulties" and the "structural transformation" of the Russian economy due to debilitating sanctions. "Difficulties are appearing across all sectors, in both big and small companies," she said. Nabiullina said the transformation of the economy, which has relied heavily on imports of manufacturing equipment and consumer goods, had begun. "Due to sanctions, Russian consumers and manufacturers are losing access to markets for the import and export of finished products and components," she said. President Vladimir Putin insists the economy has managed to weather the barrage of unprecedented sanctions imposed since he sent troops to Ukraine on February 24...... yeah good luck with that.

I'll put them with Misha Chechen in their own little separatist grouping

I just figured this was the Chechen auto dealership commercial. Maybe this guy can join that tan your testicles movement.

Kremlin Dodges Questions on Missing Moskva Warship Crew (msn.com) He said he’d been told directly by commanders that his son was listed as missing without a trace. “A conscript who is not supposed to be taking part in the war is listed as missing without a trace. You guys, he disappeared without a trace in the open sea?”!!! “Why are you, the officers, still alive, and my son, a conscript soldier, has died?” he wrote. “I will devote the rest of my life to making sure the truth will prevail in this story,” he wrote in the since-deleted post. His wife, Yegor Shkrebets’ mother, told The Insider that she and her husband had visited a military hospital in search of their son and seen about 200 wounded servicemen being treated there. She said her husband had asked a military commander where their son was, to which he replied: “Well, in the sea somewhere.”

Czech defence companies will repair Ukrainian tanks and other military vehicles that have been damaged in fighting or need servicing after long-term storage, the Czech Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. (and any tanks that Ukraine may have discovered in farm fields? Funny. Russia will have difficulty getting their poorly maintained tanks onto the battlefield, but Ukraine may get them repaired after towing them away...) Czech companies to repair damaged Ukrainian tanks (msn.com)

@The_Capt you need to factor this into the information war. Tracking The Enemy: How Ukrainians Are Using Russian Troops’ Greed Against Them (msn.com)

Stellantis Idles One of Russia’s Last Working Auto Plants (msn.com) Idling the site, which has been operating at a low level for weeks as parts supplies dried up, halts one of the last functioning automotive factories in the country. Stellantis last month halted exports and imports of cars to and from Russia, but made no mention of the plant churning out some 11,000 commercial vehicles a year. Nope sanctions are TOTALLY not affecting Russia!

Putin Plans to Meet Big Business Owners and Executives Wednesday (msn.com) This should be interesting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will continue to hold meetings with various industries. On Monday, Putin told top officials that the West’s “economic blitzkrieg” didn’t work and their sanctions had failed. (The decision to close a defense factory and send those guys to the front had nothing at all to do with sanctions......) Putin convened a gathering of Russia’s top business representatives on Feb. 24, the day he launched the invasion. That televised meeting was later cited by the European Union as a justification for sanctions against several individuals because it showed they were members of the “inner circle of oligarchs” close to the president. (Hmm these meetings seem almost intended to force these guys to feel the pain and be tied to Putin. Sucks to be invited.) More on the non-impact of sanctions. Lots more cannon fodder Western exodus could cost 200,000 jobs in Moscow, says mayor - CNN

Not really, these guys won’t be around to collect their pay.

Its all a feint. The real target is.... Jerusalem!!! Putin demands Russia gain control of Jerusalem church as promised (msn.com)

fixed that for ya

These are the two notes we have on officer casualties to date. Likely far more that we don't know yet considering how badly they got beat up in Mariupol. There is some confusion about the second guys rank. Colonel Alexei Sharov, commander of the 810th Marine Brigade. 5 days later Col Vladimir Kryvolapov replacement commander of the 810th Marine Brigade only a Sgt?