poesel

The G7 have a GDP of about 34 trillion US$ while BRICS has about 25 trillion US$ which puts it just ahead of the USA alone. I have worked in all the BRICS countries and in 4 of the G7. Of course, it depends a bit on where you are, but there is literally a world between these two groups. A world of wealth.

Sorry, but I think this will be appreciated here...

Medvedev talks about Russia falling apart if they don't win the SMO. I could not find the original source, but have it from other media, too. That is an interesting statement to make. It makes sense if your people actually don't want that to happen. But not a very good argument if they don't.

Video of a failed HIMARS missile. A bit into the video it shows the missile path through the roof, 3 levels and down into the cellar!

I'm following the MSC in Munich and I have to admit that it is a bit sobering. This war is a thing between the West and Russia, while the rest of the world is standing by and being annoyed by the disruption caused. Sobering for me in so far as all the wars I have 'experienced' used to be 'somewhere else' (Yugoslavia being the exception) and I wasn't emotionally involved. Sure, dead bodies, fleeing civilians, atrocities etc... But this was on TV - you get used to it after a while. Now there is a war close by and the South and Far East tell us, that this is our war, and we'd better get it fixed fast because it causes trouble at (their) home. Unfortunately, quite understandable for them to say. The Wests track record of keeping peace and making sure that people live well isn't that good. Oh yes, the standard of living has been going up everywhere after WWII, but mainly as a side effect of us making a profit, not because of altruistic intentions. Sorry for this bit of incoherent rambling.

Tsk - do you zink ve are some 26 letter alphabet peasantz? Ve also have Ä, Ö, Ü und ß to choose from.

Please note that the "Deutsche Bank" is a privately owned company - the name is misleading. Her biggest single shareholder is BlackRock at just over 5%. The bank owned by the government is the "Bundesbank". Until the European Central Bank took over most of it, it had the same role as the Fed in the US. However, the Fed is not owned by the US government (but controlled... maybe... ).

These are the real dividers in Europe: and of course this: From: https://atlasofprejudice.com/

Another one down... I wonder if sending small scale windows to someone will be a future thing in some circles - like sending a horse head...

That got me thinking a bit, and I like to get a better perspective by having something I can compare it to. Let's take Volkswagen in Wolfsburg. That factory churns out 3500 cars per day. Going by weight, it is about 40 cars per Leo2. That would be 900 tanks... ah, no. A bit too unrealistic. Let's use value. A VW costs about 25k€ on average, a fully equipped Leo about 7m€. Both overpriced, so multiply and divide, you get to about 12 tanks - per day. So one factory of one (not small) company in one (not small) country could produce 350 in one month or 4200 a year. IIRC the Russians supposedly had 12,000 tanks in storage when this started. That's the result of 40 years of Soviet production - or 3 years in Wolfsburg... That is what is possible if the West would _REALLY_ go nuts with military production. Don't bother correcting my numbers. I'm pretty well aware that they cannot make tanks in Wolfsburg. This example is just for scale.

Looks like there are still legit suicides happening in Russia: https://nypost.com/2023/02/13/fired-russian-general-vladimir-makarov-dies-in-apparent-suicide-report/

Do you think any high ranked politician would visit Kiev from the 23rd to 25th? THAT would be a statement.

Only judging this by what he wrote about Germany, this is flat-out & utter rubbish (to say it friendly)

How much of the stuff given to Ukraine is a gift, vs they have to pay for it after the war? Do we know that?

Now what happens if you don't need a guy to drive/fly the stuff? I think we are very rapidly reaching a point where it doesn't make much sense to actually fly a human that close to the action. That would include cities in modern Russia... If true, wouldn't that be a nice pretext to get rid of Transnistria? Joint action of Romania, Moldova & Ukraine.

There are only a handful of countries who actually have Gripens. Of these, Brazil & Hungary won't deliver to Ukraine & the Czechs have theirs leased (from Sweden). That leaves only South Africa with 26 and Sweden with around 160 planes. Technically, the Gripen might be the right plane, but that is asking for Sweden to be the sole supplier of western airplanes to Ukraine. Are you trying to hurt Ukraine? These things need so much maintenance nowadays and still hardly fly. Not a good idea. Not an issue, yet. Joining EU is the much more prominent news. When this comes up, the peaceniks and russophiles will crawl out of their holes for a last stand, but not to much effect.

I've read that the Typhoons and F16s are rather unsuited for Ukraine. What plane would then be useful? (apart from the Soviet types they already have)

If Ukraine wants to join NATO and is at peace with Russia and the US is ok with it, Germany will follow suit. Why wouldn't we? It is an explicit guideline for German foreign politics in NATO matters to only work in conjunction with her allies. The only ally that really matters (in this respect) is the US. Germany will neither be the first nor the last to sign, but we will sign it when the day comes.

Which country do you think would oppose Ukainian membership given that there would be peace? Yeah, but 'Germanic' <> 'Germany' or 'Germans'. This is a trap the English language leads you in. In German, the same words are 'Germanen' <> 'Deutschland' or 'Deutsche'. However, the Dutch were included in being 'Aryan' so the result would have been the same as the Russian behavior.

I guess Ukraine will become full member as soon as Russia wants the sanctions lifted. The cessation of all hostilities will be a non-negotiable requirement. That in turn will allow NATO membership.

IIRC the conversion from A4/5 to A6 is quite extensive and time consuming. I'd rather take them as is. The A4 is more than good enough for this war and you'll never get back the lost time.

Not wanting to disagree, but there is one factor in favor of the Russians here. Russian businessmen expect less stable supply lines (even in peace time) than their western counterparts. So they usually have a much greater stock of stuff than in western just-in-time networks. Russian companies will last longer in supply chain disruptions than western ones. This may be a factor why we don't see a breakdown, yet.

I think I need to inform you that this forum is exempt from Godwins Law. If mentioning that the Nazis did or did not something would immediately and an argument here, this forum would be full of millions of very, very short threads... So, please go ahead.

Does Ukraine still let POWs call their relatives? I always thought that this is a very, very good way to bring the war 'home'. Apart from that, I guess it is difficult to get through to the ordinary Russians. Those who wanted to know, know already. Those who have fallen for the propaganda are unreachable.