Sanctions against Russia

[willedoo]

28 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I wonder whether  Crimea was recognised as Russian or Ukrainian after 2014 and before the SMO?

Only by the usual type of suspects, Afghanistan, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe. It was also recognised by the break-away states of South Ossetia, Transnistria, Artsakh and Abkhazia, but they themselves are hardly recognised by anyone.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yeah, but given the fact that the rest of the world, and Europe in particular brokered the Minsk treaties, and that they kept dealing with Russia, almost as an ally, it would appear they informally recognised Crimea as part of Russia.

[willedoo]

Probably the biggest mistake they ever made with putin in 2014 was not standing up to him then. It would have been easier to do so if Russia invaded a totally Ukrainian Crimea, but it was complicated by the fact that the Russians were already there with long term leases of military bases in Crimea. Added to that, a high number of ethnic Russian speakers living there. I think the lease agreement allowed for up to 24,000 Russian troops on Crimea. When the trouble started in 2014, the number stationed there was around 16,000 from memory.

[kgwilson]

Ukraine didn't have any means to stop Putin in 2014 & the West whinged but did nothing. Putins support for the separatists in the Donbas got Ukraine pretty riled up but somehow Putins intelligence was a complete failure as we all know from the invasion last year. If Putin thinks he is safe in the annexed areas he is sadly mistaken. You can guarantee that anywhere he goes will be a closely guarded secret as the ability of the Ukrainians to strike almost anywhere in Eastern Russia is very real.

[willedoo]

There's been a lot of talk for a long time about body doubles. I haven't really been a believer of it until recently. You can see in currently released videos, one day he's feeble putin with the wobbly walk and Parkinsons like symptoms, then a few days later you see him bounding around like a spring chicken.

 

He might have traveled to Crimea and Mariupol but not all the footage is of him in my opinion. The ones I saw, the body language and gait was nothing like putin's. One thing that stood out was the stride with both arms swinging quite a lot. putin never swings both arms like that. The weirdest bit was where he looks like he's pulling on a latex mask. These photos are not shopped in my opinion, as you can see exactly the same thing in the Kremlin released video. Their staged propaganda is a comedy show.

 

 

[willedoo]

The collage of photos in the above post is not my work. Here's a screen grab I took from the video. Unfortunately the video is not good resolution and stops right when he walks behind the pole. Before that, he's walking along with a strange mask like face and starts pulling on the chin just before the video stops.

 

 

[rgmwa]

Certainly looks fake if you compare the texture of his ‘face’ compared to those around him.

[red750]

Compare these two photos. The imposter stands out like a sore thumb.

 

[facthunter]

Forceable rejoining is imposition of a lifestyle the inhabitants see as unacceptable having had much better for a long time now. If Chine has such a good "THING" going there would already be many going freely back and forth.. They've also seen what happened to Hong Kong's people, but the real issue is Taiwans microprocessor production and some minerals. .  Nev

[willedoo]

6 hours ago, red750 said:

Compare these two photos. The imposter stands out like a sore thumb.

 

 

There's another thing I find inconsistent. putin is extremely paranoid about assassination attempts. When he travels by car around Moscow, to and from the Kremlin, all the streets are blockaded off and a motorcade of at least a dozen security cars rushes through at maximum possible speed. Judging by the videos I've seen, they would be doing speeds around 100kph where possible.

 

 Then all of a sudden we see him (supposedly) self driving around Mariupol with minimal security, meeting locals in the street and going with them to see their new Russian built apartments. As someone pointed out, the so called Ukrainian civilians he met in the street didn't have Ukrainian accents from that area. For sure they would be employed actors who traveled from Moscow with the Kremlin's media propaganda unit. There's photographs of the same faces making up groups meeting with putin, be they fishermen, miners or soldiers - same faces, all paid actors.

[facthunter]

Don't they see all the pulverised buildings etc all around them from the NOT A WAR. Nev

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Don't they see all the pulverised buildings etc all around them from the NOT A WAR. Nev

I doubt the general Rusky public see much of it on their local six o'clock news

[willedoo]

I don't know how long Russia can sustain the huge losses in manpower they've experienced in the last couple of months. Daily figures of 800-1,000 per day are the norm now. Even if they mobilise another 100,000, it will take time to process, train them and get them into the trenches. One of the biggest killers is the Alternative Warhead M30A1 rocket that Ukraine has been using since last October. They can be launched by either the M270 or HIMARS launchers, and are the one that air-bursts 182,000 tungsten BB sized balls.

 

Doing the rounds on the internet today is a drone video showing a trench filled with what looks like an expired company sized unit, roughly around 100 men. Only about half a dozen were still moving out of the whole lot. The only thing that could kill that many inside a trench like that is an air burst munition. It looked like a WW1 gas scene of mass extermination. They just won't take the hint and go home.

[Old Koreelah]

I’ve been involved in quite a few anti-war activities over the years and one of our fervent hopes was for the combatants to run out of ammunition. 
Now that we’re actually hearing of critical shortages, things are real. 

I hope the good guys get enough supplies to quickly push the bad guys back home before this becomes The Somme all over again.

[rgmwa]

Xi Jinping and Putin seem to be best friends now. I don't think Xi is too concerned about Ukraine and I think he would be quite prepared to slip a few useful things Putin's way on the quiet if he can. It's in his interests to prop Putin up and prolong the war because it keeps the US and the West under pressure. In the meantime he makes Putin more dependent on China, so not much downside for Xi provided he doesn't get found out and hit with sanctions by the West. He can also act the benevolent peace broker and look as though he's a great statesman for domestic consumption.

 

[willedoo]

Xi's cranking the ratchet. Incrementally, bit by bit, he's turning Russia into a vassal state of China. putin appears to be so sidetracked by his desperate attempt to cling to power that he can't see it. Or another possible explanation - it's like this meme; putin knows he's screwed, knows there's no way out of it, and knows Xi is the only one he can cling to.

 

[willedoo]

This is putin greeting Xi earlier in the week. A bit weird.

 

 

[rgmwa]

 Very strange behaviour. 

[facthunter]

He's checking if there really IS a difference.  Nev

[willedoo]

Performing services in lieu of payment.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

Performing services in lieu of payment.

He must be rather broke if that's all he has left to pay with.

[kgwilson]

Wishful thinking. Totally fake.

[rgmwa]

26 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

Wishful thinking. Totally fake.

Only the photo, not the reality.

[willedoo]

The Russian pilot who collided with the American MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea has been awarded the Order of Courage medal. I guess they don't have a medal for bad piloting.

 

[facthunter]

Any more gongs and he won't get off the ground. nev