Russia

[Notre Dame Joe]

9 hours ago, Scarlet said:

Wasn't there a time when a president held up nearly $400,000,000 in military aid to blackmail Zelensky into playing ball for that president's personal gain?  I recall hearing the tapes of that conversation.  

Current POTUS got his bribes, embattled UKR President got his money.  Russian dictator got the idea these clowns could not make real opposition. 

 

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/319c830b-2abd-4eed-85d9-61b06cd83dbb#Wr341YiC.copy

 

 

4 hours ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I will display my American flag a few times a year, but I'm not throwing it in the back of a F-350 along with a Don't Tread on Me flag. It sucks that displaying a flag at my house could cause a negative point of view from some people. 

 

It's a flag.  They that wove it faced a much more negative point of view.

[Born N Bled Red]

1 minute ago, Born N Bled Red said:

 

The team TFG was playing for did win and it was easy. Putin knew he was going to start a war. He needed to reinforce and insulate his economy in order to survive sanctions. 

 

China and Russia are clearly in cahoots on this. China decided it wants to economically support Russia. But how? Purchase Russian grain. Even better doing so hurts the US. But just switching would be strange and raise significant concerns.

 

So TFG's handlers get him to knowing or unknowing go along with this ploy by starting a trade war with China. Giving them the perfect cover to use their economic power to support Russia over the US. 

 

We can argue whether Trump was in on the plan or was merely a useful idiot, but I'm convinced now, that this is what that was all about.

[Born N Bled Red]

2 minutes ago, Notre Dame Joe said:

Current POTUS got his bribes, embattled UKR President got his money.  Russian dictator got the idea these clowns could not make real opposition. 

 

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/319c830b-2abd-4eed-85d9-61b06cd83dbb#Wr341YiC.copy

 

 

 

It's a flag.  They that wove it faced a much more negative point of view.

 

Have I just seen a ghost????

[Notre Dame Joe]

3 hours ago, Moiraine said:

 

 

I can't figure any of it out. I just did a search on their military equipment and this is from a recent NYT article, but it was written before the war started:

 

 

 

But if this is true... why use it to actually attack Kharkiv and Kiev? Are they that arrogant? Is the point still just to take the southeastern region and not allow the Ukrainian army to go there? I am guessing the author didn't think they would actually (at least by appearance) try to take Kiev and Kharkiv. And speaking of the southern region, I haven't heard they've advanced far there either. They have not taken Mariupol (although that may happen soon) or Dnipro. 

I also wonder if Ukraine has more equipment than Russia realized, or if Russia thought they wouldn't get more. There are several countries (at a minimum, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and the U.S.) funneling equipment through Poland. I believe I read the U.S. is sending them more javelins.

I've been hearing that all day.  I am just wondering where are the Amazon trucks supposed to drop it off?  Russians already have access to the main roads and airports even if they aren't yet secured.

 

4 hours ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

Never knew that former heavyweight boxing champ Vitali Klitschko was the mayor of Kyiev, and that he and his fellow heavyweight boxing champ brother Wladimir have every intention of dying on the front line in defense of their capitol. 

I thought that name sounded familiar.  It's the same guy?

[BigRedBuster]

 

[Scarlet]

This vs 

 

Quote

President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be

 

[NM11046]

yes same guy and fam.  

 

 

[Enhance]

4 hours ago, ZRod said:

@Moiraine I've been trying to figure out what the hell happened to Russian military we feared so much over the years. By all accounts they should have steamrolled Ukraine by now and we should be seeing bloody urban combat on a massive scale. They don't have air superiority, can't take airports, have now apparently lost 2 massive troop transport planes that could have had almost 200 soldiers onboard, and have had several units surrendering.

 

I think Russian might it's all been a farce. They are who they've always been. A massive army, a few high tech vehicles, and nukes; but that's it. Their equipment overall has looked like pure junk. Most of the trucks look like they're 50 years old, if not more. Their "armoured" personnel carriers look like they just slapped some steal plates on an RV and towed it with a truck. The BMPs you see are a essentially a 60 year old design... It's weird because I thought they were a truly modern military.

This topic interested me too so I've been reading a lot of international analysis (both present and recent past) regarding Russia's current military (tagging @Moiraine as well).

 

For all of Russia's bravado, they're a second tier world power. Their military (while formidable from a quantity standpoint) is largely built to bully and steamroll over less powerful countries in their immediate area, as we have been seeing for several years. However, they have consistently promoted fear and worry because of their access to nuclear weapons. That's essentially their biggest trump card (no pun intended) and I think why people are somewhat surprised by their struggles in Ukraine. If you take away the nukes then you take away a huge chunk of their perceptive military power and are left with what we're seeing now.

 

As for their struggles in Ukraine, part of it is they haven't been utilizing their full power (they still have I think more than 50% of their soldiers on the border in reserve right now.) Ukraine has additionally amassed a fairly considerable amount of firepower in the form of anti-aircraft and close range ballistics (shouts to NATO). Furthermore, assaulting an urban area is incredibly difficult (e.g. Kyiv), particularly when civilians are taking up arms. I also think Russia is not overly interested in losing tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of military assets... though they're sure on their way.

 

We also have to take into account the sheer size and value of Kyiv's land. It's the second largest European country and Russia appears hesitant to cause too much damage. For example, they've been trying desperately to secure an airfield near Kyiv. If they wanted to just blow it up and move in then they could easily have the space... but they want to use the airfield. And I think it's the same situation in Kyiv itself. If they wanted to just level the city and kill all its people then they probably could, but I think Russia knows that this would probably incur more of the world's wrath than it already has as well as completely ruin the city in which they want to control. So they're playing bully without full on pummeling their victim's face to death.

[Decked]

Russia doesn’t seem as militarily advanced as we had thought even if this is just a fraction of their force. I realize they are using older modernized soviet era tanks like T-80s/T72s but Without nukes we would f#&%ing smash these guys into dust. They can’t even claim air superiority on Ukraine. 

[Notre Dame Joe]

Way back when he was starting off Putin remarked "we are a 2nd world nation with nukes."

 

In every war that I am aware of Russia either won by overwhelming numbers or lost due to sloppy capabilities

[Dr. Strangelove]

43 minutes ago, Decked said:

Russia doesn’t seem as militarily advanced as we had thought even if this is just a fraction of their force. I realize they are using older modernized soviet era tanks like T-80s/T72s but Without nukes we would f#&%ing smash these guys into dust. They can’t even claim air superiority on Ukraine. 

There's an actual wild story of a battle between Russian forces and US soldiers.

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/world/middleeast/american-commandos-russian-mercenaries-syria.amp.html&ved=2ahUKEwiq_uHQyJ72AhW_lGoFHaWoAbEQFnoECA0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw3XdWvg9RMfQIBdOW6h_Cmg

 

Just a few years ago, a group of around 500 "Syrians" attacked a group of 40 Americans at an outpost in Syria. The 500 Syrians were speaking Russian on intercepted communications. It was likely a mix of Syrian and Russian forces. 

 

The battle lasted 4 hours, and of the 500 attacking Syrian/Russian forces 200-300 were killed. Many tanks, vehicles, and other equipment were destroyed. 

 

The American group that started with 40 soldiers finished the battle with... 40. They suffered 0 casualties. The Syrian/Russian force attacked the wrong target. Russia wanted to test weapons, tactics and the training of the Syrian and they were annihilated.

[suh_fan93]

 

[commando]

[suh_fan93]

 

 

[Enhance]

I'd be fascinated to learn what Russia's economic plan in all this was. I've read they've spent years stockpiling gold and have fairly strong trade relationships with China, so they're probably built to mitigate quite a bit of the sanctions being levied onto them... at least from a governmental standpoint.

 

The Russians who will probably be most impacted by all this though are their majority populace i.e. poverty and middle class groups.