OT subject but worth a main-stream read- OT News Feeds...

Gulfcoastguy

A source that I can't completely recommend as accurate but an interesting idea regardless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQnVeOYqko4

lousubcap

All's fair in love and war.  
The Russian's want a "land bridge" and Putin needs a win.  Donbas here they come.  

lousubcap

All I've got today so far, a Russian about face:
https://gcaptain.com/russia-confirms-casualties-from-moskva-sinking/?subscriber=true&goal=0_f50174ef03-346916fd43-170052525&mc_cid=346916fd43&mc_eid=10465e83ed

Botch

vlad's reach is particularly scary.
https://www.businessinsider.com/2-russian-oligarchs-found-dead-spain-moscow-reports-2022-4

lousubcap

@Botch-glad you have surfaced.  The above gives me pause as to how President Zelensky is still going strong.  
The leopard never changes his spots-once a KGB guy...

Gulfcoastguy

 Assume everyone heard about the three mysterious fires in Russia?  One at the plant that makes their advanced military missiles, one at their space related center, and one at their main industrial solvents plant. What a Special Coincidence.

Gulfcoastguy

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/fire-russian-defence-research-facility-kills-people-84226471

lousubcap

@Gulfcoastguy - I will readily admit that I don't subscribe to the word assume.  Glad you posted as I have been off any grid for a few hours.  I need to get back into the game but, How sweet it is!  

Gulfcoastguy

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/russian-chemical-plant-burns-down-hours-after-deadly-fire-at-military-facility

Gulfcoastguy

Sorry but I can only readily find links to 2 out of 3.

lousubcap

Food for today:

"Putin’s War Puts Russians in a Bind

Given the death and destruction Russian forces have unleashed in Ukraine, some Russians may “feel trapped,” Andrei Kolesnikov writes for Foreign Affairs, offering that “the West is more hostile toward them than ever, but there is nothing left for them in Russia. They support Putin as the supreme commander of their fabled army, but deep down they are beginning to understand that the president has led them to a place from which escape may be impossible. For Russians, it is an age-old feeling. As far back as 1863, the brilliant revolutionary thinker Alexander Herzen identified the tension: ‘The Russian’s position is becoming interminably difficult,’ he wrote from Italy. ‘He feels more and more foreign in the West, while his hatred for what is being done at home grows deeper and deeper.’ Then, as now, the hatred is secret rather than overt. And Russians cannot admit it to themselves.”    As the war plays out, Kolesnikov notes, Russians do have access to accurate information via virtual private networks (VPNs) that let them connect to foreign media websites—but state-propaganda outlets are readily available and offer false accounts that may sit more comfortably."

SamIAm2

This afternoon I was wondering what RFE was broadcasting about the Russian "Special Operation" in the Ukraine. Found this from the Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/06/radio-free-europe-russia-ukraine/

lousubcap

Russia-Ukraine update:

"Russia has made small advances after beginning to focus on the full occupation of the Donbas region, but the lack of resources and combat support is making it hard for the Russian troops to occupy the region, the U.K. Defense Ministry has said in an intelligence update. Russia’s Ministry of Defense has proposed that the military handle payments to families of deceased soldiers, suggesting that Russia is trying to hide the extensive war losses from its own population, the update added. Ayumi Fujimoto reports for NBC News. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an unannounced trip to Kyiv on Sunday that U.S. diplomats would return to Ukraine this week. Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin traveled to the Ukrainian capital, where they met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials, making them the highest-level US officials to have traveled to the country since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kylie Atwood and Jennifer Hanlser report for CNN. 

In recent days Russian authorities have stopped publishing data on government debt, trade statistics and oil production, while lawmakers work on a bill banning lenders from sharing data with foreign states. The growing blackout is part of an effort by the Russian authorities to protect the economy and domestic companies from further sanctions by the West. Limited data means that Washington and Brussels will have less visibility on whether and how their sanctions are working. Georgi Kantchev reports for the Wall Street Journal. "

Gulfcoastguy

More mysterious fires in Russia.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/explosions-heard-then-fires-break-111400211.html

lousubcap

Today's Russia-Ukraine update:

"Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that the war in Ukraine would probably end in a treaty, but acknowledged the terms would depend on the military situation in the country at the time. “As in any situation where armed forces are used, everything will end with a treaty,” Lavrov said in an interview with state television. “But its parameters will be determined by the stage of hostilities at which this treaty becomes a reality.” Reis Thebault and Rachel Pannett report for the Washington Post. 

​​Ukraine's state-run atomic energy company, Energoatom, has said that Russian missiles flew at low altitude over Europe's largest nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Tuesday, and reiterated warnings that Russia's invasion could lead to a "nuclear catastrophe." The company said cruise missiles had flown over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during an airstrike. According to local authorities, the strike ultimately hit a commercial building in the city of Zaporizhzhia, killing at least one person. Reuters reports. "

lousubcap

Here's a frictionless conduit article from the Atlantic:

TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022

Rachel Gutman SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Years of authoritarianism and dehumanizing language have made opposing Putin’s war difficult for Russians. Then: The perks of a “workcation” might be bigger than you think.

Impossible choices (Ramil Sitdikov / AFP / Getty) The United States escalated its rhetoric against Russia this week after two top officials met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said yesterday at a news conference. Also yesterday, the White House nominated an ambassador to Ukraine, a post that’s been empty for three years. As the U.S. takes a bolder stance against Russia, our writers are investigating how Russian citizens see the war—and what effects the conflict is continuing to have on civilians in Ukraine. Evidence from Bucha, Mariupol, and other hard-hit areas suggests that Ukrainians have been forcefully relocated, raped, and executed. But on the other side of the border, “we can fairly assume that a large number of Russians, and perhaps a clear majority, are indifferent to the atrocities committed in their name,” as our contributing writer Shadi Hamid put it. What’s going on? Putin is dehumanizing Ukrainians to justify atrocities. “In Putin’s language, and in the language of most Russian television commentators, the Ukrainians have no agency,” my colleague Anne Applebaum writes in a new essay for the magazine. “They can’t make choices for themselves. They can’t elect a government for themselves. They aren’t even human—they are ‘Nazis.’” Years of dictatorship have robbed Russians of free will.“Authoritarianism twists the soul and distorts natural moral intuitions. In so doing, it renders its citizens—or, more precisely, its subjects—less morally culpable,” Shadi writes.

lousubcap

Today (4/27) Russia-Ukraine update:

Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria said today that shots were fired from Ukraine towards a village that houses an ammunition depot, the latest report to raise concern that Russia's war in Ukraine might expand. The interior ministry said in a statement that several drones had been detected flying over the village of Cobasna overnight and that they had been launched from Ukraine. Reuters reports. 

Moldova said it was placing its security forces on alert yesterday following a series of explosions in Transnistria, a breakaway pro-Russian enclave. The explosions have stirred concerns over the role that some 1,500 Russian troops stationed there could play in supporting Moscow’s campaign in neighbouring Ukraine. Matthew Luxmoore reports for the Wall Street Journal. 

Russia has agreed “in principle” to U.N. involvement in the evacuation of citizens from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, following a meeting between U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. Guterres also met with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, telling reporters after the meeting that “it is clear that there are two different positions on what is happening in Ukraine.” UN News Centre reports. 

Russia has agreed “in principle” to U.N. involvement in the evacuation of citizens from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, following a meeting between U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. Guterres also met with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, telling reporters after the meeting that “it is clear that there are two different positions on what is happening in Ukraine.” UN News Centre reports. 

Russia will halt gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria starting today, the first time it has followed through on a threat to cut off countries that don’t pay for their gas on new, wartime terms outlined in March by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The move marks a major escalation by Russia, which has tried to bolster its currency by insisting customers pay for gas in rubles and introduces the possibility that more economies in Europe could be targeted. Drew Hinshaw reports for the Wall Street Journal.  

The E.U. has accused Russia of “blackmail” after state-controlled gas company, Gazprom, shut off the supply of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria. “The announcement by Gazprom that it is unilaterally stopping delivery of gas to customers in Europe is yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. Emily Rauhala reports for the Washington Post. 

HeavyG

Before the Moskva, there was the Kursk: The sunken submarine that helped Putin consolidate power over Russia

Gulfcoastguy

Typical Washington news leak of classified war info  https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-intel-helped-ukraine-protect-160006854.html

lousubcap

HeavyG said:

Before the Moskva, there was the Kursk: The sunken submarine that helped Putin consolidate power over Russia

I remember that whole event quite well.  The article did not mention that once the sealed off aft compartment was breeched there was writing on the bulkhead indicating there were quite a few who survived the explosions until they ran out of time/oxygen.  

lousubcap

@Gulfcoastguy - That reporting along with the near real time intel offered in the media at the start of the war does have the benefit of giving Putin more fears of just what else do we know.  So there's that...

Canugghead

Alaska was part of Soviet Union, no?
https://news.yahoo.com/ridiculous-rand-pauls-comments-russias-211011961.html

nolaegghead

HeavyG said:

Before the Moskva, there was the Kursk: The sunken submarine that helped Putin consolidate power over Russia

If you read the whole article and compare that history to the recent attack here on the media, unless you are as dumb as a rock, you will see where that leads.

HeavyG

nolaegghead said:

HeavyG said:

Before the Moskva, there was the Kursk: The sunken submarine that helped Putin consolidate power over Russia

If you read the whole article and compare that history to the recent attack here on the media, unless you are as dumb as a rock, you will see where that leads.

That paragraph about "crisis actors" in particular caught my eye.

JohnInCarolina

Canugghead said:

Alaska was part of Soviet Union, no?
https://news.yahoo.com/ridiculous-rand-pauls-comments-russias-211011961.html

I have often wondered wtf Rand Paul is actually trying to accomplish. 

HeavyG

JohnInCarolina said:

Canugghead said:

Alaska was part of Soviet Union, no?
https://news.yahoo.com/ridiculous-rand-pauls-comments-russias-211011961.html

I have often wondered wtf Rand Paul is actually trying to accomplish. 

Every time he speaks I can appreciate why his neighbor beat the sh!t out of him.

McCain seemed to have figured out Paul a few years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTdqIlfp8XE

nolaegghead

Following a decade of Fidesz–KDNP rule lead by Viktor Orbán, Freedom House's Nations in Transit 2020 report reclassified Hungary from a democracy to a transitional or hybrid regime. According to the report, "the right-wing alliance... has gradually undermined the rule of law in Hungary and established tight control over the country's independent institutions... [it] has steadily rewritten the Hungarian constitution, and eliminated democratic safeguards statutorily embodied in the Constitutional Court, Prosecutors Office, Media Authority, and State Audit Office...". It also limited parliamentary oversight, independent media, non-governmental organisationsand academics, while consolidating power around the central government.[139] Other democracy barometers have also rated Hungary as not a democracy, and there are a wide variety of labels for Hungary's political system found in scholarship.[140][141]According to data from the V-Dem Institute, Hungary is one of the most rapidly autocratising countries in the world as of 2021.[142]

lousubcap

Thursday Russia-Ukraine update:

"In the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, a series of explosions temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air yesterday, according to reports by Ukrainian and Russian news outlets. The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said missiles and rockets were fired at the city from the direction of the Ukrainian forces to the northwest. AP reports. 

Ukraine can choose the “tactics” required to fend off Russia’s invasion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said when asked whether the United States should support offensive operations by Ukraine against Russia. “My own view is that it’s vital that they do whatever is necessary to defend against Russian aggression,” Blinken told a Senate panel yesterday, following explosions in southern Russia and a fire at a Russian ammunition depot. John Hudson reports for the Washington Post. 

U.K. defense secretary Ben Wallace said today that while it would be legitimate for Ukrainian forces to target Russian logistics to cripple their supply of food, fuel and munitions, they were unlikely to use British weapons to do so. Tensions between Britain and Russia increased this week when Moscow accused London of provoking Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, saying there would be an immediate "proportional response" if it continued. Reuters reports. 

U.K. defense secretary Ben Wallace has said Russian President Vladimir Putin is “trying to broaden” the conflict in Ukraine after a series of explosions rocked Transnistria in Moldova. “There is definitely a sense that . . . he is almost in desperation trying to broaden this, either with threats, or indeed potential false flags or attacks,” he said. Leke Oso Alabi reports for the Financial Times. 

The Russian navy is still able to hit Ukrainian targets from the Black Sea despite the high-profile loss of its fleet's flagship, the U.K. defense ministry has said in an intelligence update. Approximately 20 Russian Navy vessels are currently in the Black Sea operational zone, the update added. "

Edit-additional reading:

"The war in Ukraine will continue until "Russia decides to end it," the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said yesterday. "The war will not end with meetings,” he told CNN during an interview. "The war will end when the Russian Federation decides to end it and when there is – after a ceasefire – a possibility of a serious political agreement. We can have all the meetings but that is not what will end the war." Hannah Ritchie reports for CNN. "

HeavyG

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1519420947585015810

JohnInCarolina

HeavyG said:

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1519420947585015810

Jesus