FancyCat

Never mind on boat, the location does not match the explosion at least from that angle.

If it was a truck bomb....

There is a boat....but unsure how big it was.

It's likely fake. The attack happened at night.

Guess that's it, just let it burn out.

Wow. It's all screwed up.

Oh nevermind, I rechecked, pretty sure the whole bridge is out of action, Russians will have to fly and get a boat back to Russia to get off Crimea. What a coup by Ukraine. Frankly, all NATO states should apply to Ukraine to renew their membership.

Where the hell is the fire department? Longer that burns. Also I see cctv cameras staring at that bridge. Wonder if it caught anything.

Magnificent video. Hey, there's still a road span fine. Sounds like a great evacuation route....

(This is gas but....also about the cause of the war) There are pipelines thru Poland and Ukraine that still bring gas to Europe, part of the reason why Poland and Ukraine strongly opposed Nord Stream was the risk of Russia skipping Poland and Ukraine and supplying their customers in Western and Central Europe without paying transit fees to Poland and Ukraine and in the event Poland and Ukraine wished to impose costs to Europe or to Russia, (say in the event of invasion....) the fear was Nord Stream would facilitate Western Europe betraying Poland and Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe with Russian gas flowing via Nord Stream. While this is a reason for Poland or Ukraine to destroy Nord Stream, such a risky action that if discovered would destroy relations in Europe combined with Ukraine being absolutely fine with the gas flowing to Europe even as Ukrainian and Russians war on Ukrainian soil indicates that Ukraine understands the need for Europe to get their gas and is fine with letting it thru. (As long as Ukraine gets its portion of the transit fees, a very large amount ofmoney) As for why shipping LNG can't occur to make up for Russian loss like from the U.S, from February but still applies, https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/brimming-european-lng-terminals-have-limited-space-more-gas-2022-02-17/ The capacity of ship based LNG is maxed out, and infrastructure projects to bring online additional terminals take time.

One, I recall a ton of complaints about the restriction of drilling permits by the Biden administration but it turns out that oil and gas companies had tons of existing permits without any use of the land. If your gonna complain about drilling permits being needed for production, use up the existing permits you already have and haven't done anything with. I mean oil and gas has its up and down markets like all commodities, that's why OPEC exists, it's a cartel to prevent market competition. So a American oil and gas company isn't just competing domestically, the price of oil and gas is dependent on worldwide factors, like potential recession lowering demand (which I could strongly see OPEC's actions to be in response to global decline in demand to keep the price steady, not just supporting Russia), if I were them, why take on more expenses like drilling, rather than coast on existing production and earn some money with a bolstered oil price due to OPEC? If I drill, I might well just lower the price and lose out. As for the strategic reserve, I dunno, a conflict where Russia is using every tool including energy to inflict damage on the west sounds like a great time to deplete the reserve. https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/biden-9000-unused-oil-drill-permits/ As for nationalization, I have no opinion on it, I just like noting that state owned companies literally take marching orders from their governments, Biden can't order companies to drill. It would be just as bad as nationalization for Biden to order the producers to do so disregarding their need to make profit, and historically only due to instances like war or other conflicts. (Maybe we can say so now due to Russian conflict but I don't think most people will share that sentiment just yet) And the U.S is still energy sufficient but again, global market, I don't blame the companies for seeking profit, but I just find it silly people think Biden controls the market like a lever. The Saudi heir apparent has a more visible lever than Biden by far. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2022/03/08/surprise-the-us-is-still-energy-independent/

Nationalization of the American oil industry? Cause that's the only way to compete. End of the day, it's countries that have governments that directly control energy production vs our American industry looking for profits. Or maybe lots of subsidies. Neither is cheap. Also the implication that OPEC needs to bow to the U.S is quite foolish. Many of the OPEC members rely on higher oil pricing to fund their governments, so end of the day, it's just business. Never been fine with the implication that Saudi Arabia needs to bow down to us like a puppet.

pretty photo.

I haven't played CMBS in a while, (can't, feels too morbid), I was reviewing the TOE.....wondering about a future CM Ukraine... Look I understand that the level of HIMARS might be too above CM's scope....if it'll tip the scales...maybe a little DLC is in order? Gah, micro-dlc is evil but I want some rockets...

For all the incompetence of Russia, I don't think the Russians internal security services are such that would let more important targets get killed, so I strongly don't see a reason for killing her unless it was intended as a message to not dare target senior Ukrainian officials, as once you kill them, security gets tighten down and the intel and assets in Russia need to be quiet for risk of being discovered. The actual risky action with the potential to spin out of control and escalate the conflict, would have been Ukraine targeting a high-ranking Russian official or a Russian government building in Moscow. Certainly if we believe the reports, the political and military command of the Ukrainian government have been targeted previously. If Ukraine really wanted to ensure Russia didn't continue targeting their senior personnel, but not risk Russian need to escalate in response to their message to knock it off, certainly Dugina qualifies. If Ukraine did it. I'm still very suspicious of how Russia uncovered the perpetrator. Certainly, if these new reports of Russian infighting pan out, I can totally believe the Russian elite are knifing each other for various reasons like the RU nats being told to stop criticizing Putin or etc, etc.

Not sure the Dugina story resurfacing is a big deal anyhow, the battlefield shifting is much more compelling for news to report on. I'm personally not concerned about her death, her sayings are horrid and genocidal, and so are those of her father, Russia deserves to get reminded that Moscow isn't some walled off zone from the rest of the world, and incitement to hatred is certainly actionable for violence to be undertaken in certain circumstances. Still don't think they would expend their assets on such a low level target unless it was designed to threaten Russia with worse if needed.

I saw someone, somewhere say this, and it really hammers in how vague this article is on details. I mean, we don't even get any info on whether the Russian accusation on the bombing perpetrator is legit or not. I mean not even a indication of what branch of the Ukrainian government carried this out.