sburke

No country Ray!!

probably the same countries as your cellphone

The look on his face says "great, this sh1tshow is now mine? Better check on the earliest flight to UAE before I end up in Lefertovo."

Ukraine Is Losing Several S-300 Anti-Air Launchers A Week. But It Still Has Hundreds Left. (msn.com)

and to think the Sherman got a bad rap.

A senior Russian official was sent to a notorious Moscow jail in retribution for poor Ukraine intel, expert says (businessinsider.nl) A senior Russian foreign intelligence official has sent to prison, a respected Russian expert said, after President Vladimir Putin launched a purge of officials blamed for failings in the faltering invasion of Ukraine. Andrei Soldatov, an leading expert on Russia's security services, tweeted Friday that Sergei Beseda, head of the Fifth Service of the FSB intelligence agency, had been taken to Lefortovo prison. Lefortovo is a notorious FSB jail on the outskirts of Moscow. Beseda along with his deputy had been placed under house arrest in March, Soldatov had previously said, as officials from investigated whether moles had buried into Russia's spy agencies and leaked intelligence on Russia's invasion and the planning behind it.

at least. Foreign investment in Russia is off the table until there is fundamental long-term change there. Putin decided a shovel wasn't enough and ordered a backhoe to dig that grave. It will be interesting to see if they actually go through with this.

1 You can't make modern weapons from Church bells. 2 Russia has lost plenty of wars. This Napoleon/Hitler view is hardly the only story of Russian wars.. and in both those Russia got enormous aid from its allies. China isn't so forthcoming. You think Russia is stubborn? I think Ukraine is teaching them a whole other lesson in stubborn.

none? I'd say the withdrawal from around Kiev was a pretty big giving up on plans A-E. And I don't think Russia can afford for this to keep going at this rate. Unfortunately, they may just have to accept amputation.

not really an apples to apples. Yes EU is paying for oil and gas. That doesn't translate directly to war funds. Russia has an entire economy to keep going. The money/weapons etc EU is giving Ukraine go DIRECTLY to the war effort. Would it be nice to cut Russia off completely? yeah but not realistic at this point. What is happening is a concerted effort to get to that point. For Russia there is immediate pain caused by some of the sanctions and long term pain of folks looking to stop doing business with them. Putin is digging a helluva big hole for Russia's grave, but nothing happens overnight.

For a KGB guy this has got to hurt. Expulsion of Russian ‘diplomats’ may strangle Moscow’s spying (msn.com) Russia depends on those operatives to gather intelligence inside the countries where they serve, so the expulsions could dismantle large parts of Moscow’s spy networks and lead to a dramatic reduction in espionage and disinformation operations against the West, current and former officials said. “The intelligence war with Russia is at full swing,” said Marc Polymeropoulos, a retired CIA officer who oversaw the agency’s clandestine operations in Europe and Russia. “This … will prove to be a significant dent in Russian intelligence operations in Europe.” Officials said it appeared to be the largest ever coordinated expulsion of diplomats from Europe. “Europe has always been the Russians’ playground. They have wreaked havoc with election interference and assassinations. This is a long overdue step,” Polymeropoulos said. In the past six weeks, European officials have asked nearly 400 Russian diplomats to leave their postings, according to a tally by The Washington Post. Notably, countries that have long tried to avoid confrontation with Moscow are among those declaring Russian diplomats persona non grata. Expulsions by the Czech Republic, for example, which has in the past pursued a less hawkish policy toward Moscow, have left just six Russian diplomats in Prague, a point the government underscored on Wednesday. “WE FORCED 100 RUSSIAN ‘DIPLOMATS’ TO LEAVE,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an Instagram post that implied the Russian officials were actually intelligence officers. Senior European officials involved in the expulsion process said the impact would likely vary from place to place. Some countries, like Austria, are thick with international agencies that are prime targets. Other regions, like the Baltics, have large numbers of ethnic Russians who moved there during the Soviet occupation and can be targets for influence campaigns. A senior European diplomat called it a “major disruption” to Russia’s intelligence work in Europe, potentially a permanent one. The Kremlin will have difficulty replenishing its intelligence ranks, the diplomat said. “Reassigning and instruction will take time and may not be possible for some time, if ever,” said the diplomat who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “Retraining, redeploying, all of this is disrupted.”

Hmm wonder if this is getting reported in Russia Russia laments 'significant losses' as Ukraine braces for major offensive (yahoo.com) Russia on Thursday appeared to give the most damning assessment so far of its invasion, describing the "tragedy" of mounting troop losses and the economic hit as Ukrainians were evacuated from eastern cities before an anticipated major offensive. Russia has previously acknowledged its attack has not progressed as quickly as it wanted, but on Thursday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov lamented the rising death toll. "We have significant losses of troops," he told Sky News. "It's a huge tragedy for us."

One thing he didn't bring up was that issue of soldiers' pay. It becomes problematic when you are offering bonuses to redeploy, but word has gotten out that there seems to be some issues actually getting paid.

hell with him. After testing the Soviet campaign in CW he's off the Christmas list.

looks at pic... starts crying because it has curved roads...

maybe I should have caveated that with "in this thread"

I think @LongLeftFlankwas the first to term it crowd sourcing the war.

actually a good plan!!! More meetings means less productive! "meetings, the alternative to work."

oh for sure. And Bucha is just one location. I expect unfortunately we will find this is the norm. In the case of Bucha I understand VDV was operating there as well. Naming names is part of filing war crimes charges.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think anyone is trivializing the holocaust. I think what we are hearing is a relative comparison of the impact on the Ukrainian people regarding German versus Russian fascism. Now given what we are hearing from some Russian nationalist forces one could say those folks attitudes towards Ukraine mirror the Nazis views and final solution for Jews. (stated goal to exterminate etc) but I don't believe anyone is trivializing. Unless we are saying that one can never do a comparison to the Nazis when someone is talking about exterminating your own people. My point was the Russians are clearly exhibiting extreme fascist behavior so can we move on?

I think we can quit with the biggest fascist awards. Anybody even competing is on the other side. Doesn't matter if they are the worst or runner up worst.

more Russian diplomats eligible for front line service Greece, Norway order expulsion of Russian diplomats (msn.com)

as Astro would say ruh roh! Putin ally China rejects Russian oil despite steep discounts amid Western sanctions, report says (msn.com)