Russian invasion of Ukraine

[Azadina]

yeah in this instance it's consistent because that's what they are: they are a mindless army of psychos, raping, pillaging, and destroying everything.

How are they mindless if they're having fun? I remember you listed those things as them having fun earlier. A slip up of what someone else is jealous of missing, perhaps?

[Saradain]

but do you really imagine Putin handling defeat at all? Is he going to just rot away in humilation with a whimper or do some insane shit no one expects?

Wait and see. Just painting doomsday scenario helps no one. If the end comes for all of us, then it does so with or without you or anyone posting about them. I am not worried. For your own sake, I hope you do not live your life in fear, especially if you live in the US.

[Breccia]

Welp, it's blame game time! 150 officials from Federal Security Service (previously known as KGB and full of Putler buddies of old) got sacked, and two high ranking dudes got put under arrest.

Dude, post links with that shit.

Putin 'arrests the man who invented Putinism' in purge of 150 spy chiefs as he turns on his inner circle in hunt for scapegoat for disaster in Ukraine

Russian outlet Buninskaya Alleya reported: 'More and more sources report that Vladislav Surkov is under house arrest.

'Investigative measures have been carried out allegedly in the case of embezzlement in the Donbas since 2014….

'It was Surkov who was the representative of the Russian President in Ukraine.'

Telegram channel Druid reported: 'According to our sources, Vladislav Surkov is under house arrest.'

If confirmed, the move against Vladislav Surkov appears to show Vladimir Putin is turning on his inner circle, and also deep splits among his closest henchmen.

Unconfirmed accounts say Putin's 'ideologist' is being held in a wide-ranging criminal probe that has also seen the arrest of 150 FSB agents.

The case evidently involves the alleged embezzlement of $5 billion (£3.85billion) by the secret services to create an undercover and intelligence network in Ukraine.

The shadowy Surkov, seen as crucial to Putin's long-running electoral success, was the man who encouraged him to believe Ukraine is not a real country.

The 57-year-old is a former Kremlin insider, more recently a Putin point man in Ukraine.

Before Putin sent troops into Ukraine, Surkov called for Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states to be annexed.

The detention of senior FSB figure Col-General Sergei Beseda, 68, now held in grim Lefortovo jail, is seen as a linked case.

Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomarev also highlighted the detention claims and pointed at Kurkov's closeness to the leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov is seen as muscling in on the war, and in his role as a Lt-Gen in the national guard demanding that Putin invades all of Ukraine.

This has caused a split in Putin's inner circle.

Surkov was formerly deputy head of the Russian presidential administration from 1999 to 2011.

He has been called Putin's 'main ideologist', devising the concept of 'sovereign democracy' as a mask for authoritarianism.

He advocated the need to defend Russians beyond the borders of the motherland - a key plank in Putin's annexation of Crimea and bossing of the Donbas.

'The Russian world is something bigger than Russia itself,' said Surkov.

'Because we are in fact a dispersed people, our population stretches well beyond our own borders.

'What is the Russian world to me? It's everywhere, where people speak Russian and think like Russians, or where they respect Russian culture.'

Once described as 'the hidden author of Putinism', he advocated an outward look of democratic norms with timely elections in which the results are preordained.

He also convinced Putin that, as Surkov said: 'There is no Ukraine. There is Ukrainianness.

'That is, a specific mental disorder. An amazing enthusiasm for ethnography, taken to an extreme…

'There is no nation.'

So pinch of salt, because this is coming from Russian media. I can't think of a good reason Putin would lie about this off the top of my head.

So it could be false. But:
1) Putin can't possibly be happy with his Ukrainian intel.
2) The violent and effective resistance means Putin shouldn't be happy with Surkov, either.
3) Yep, that's a Russian official saying that people who live in Ukraine, are Russians, and if they don't agree they have a mental disease.
4) We've all talked about Russian corruption being a proven pandemic in the Russian military. Construction paper doesn't stop RPGs, yo. We've talked about the money that was supposed to go to supplies, going to rich corrupt Russians instead, and then Russian troops show up with no ammo and expired MREs. Well, it would be no giant leap in logic to assume money that was supposed to go to spying on Ukraine, instead being pocked, and people just writing "reports" saying "Ukraine is great, they are clearly for Glorious Leader Putin, invasion would be easy, SIEG HEIL". And...then it wasn't.

We should keep our eyes open for a more credible report, but, I'm not sure how quickly we'd get one -- whether this is a true story or not.

- - - Updated - - -

Unless Russia masters necromancy, it will end. Even if we have to mount their heads on spikes and send the chopped up orc-corpses back to their mommy as a warning.

I would say "save some for the rest of us" but no, Finland's earned this. Just take pictures of the smoking pile of ash that used to be Russia's defenses.

[PC2]

He'll whine about NATO expansion on his Telegram channel.

Which is strange because expansion isn't even a bad thing when it is consensual and desired by both parties.

[Breccia]

Biden announces $800 million more aid to Ukraine.

[ghotihook]

Biden announces $800 million more aid to Ukraine.

I have always been a "dont spend my tax money on wars", but to me this is different. I am fine with this.

[Edge-]

I have always been a "dont spend my tax money on wars", but to me this is different. I am fine with this.

This isn't "money on wars", but foreign aid that happens to be going to a country at war, who may very well be a key strategic ally on the other end of this.

Not directed at you, but it's lame how most Americans don't understand the point of foreign aid or the direct and indirect returns it brings to US interests.

[Slirith]

Uh, hard no on that. Sovereign nations are sovereign. And Russia needs to be able to defend itself just like Ukraine has a right to self-defense.

Well, Russia can make the RSDF like Japan made the JSDF

[Vladier]

Which is strange because expansion isn't even a bad thing when it is consensual and desired by both parties.

How is it strange when those parties don't exist in the void, and one of them has a jealous abusive ex?

[Finlandia WOAT]

Chips (produced in Taiwan) have already been tested, so integration is already solved.

Which "supply chain"? Producing high-purity silicon is a matter of priorities. Methods -> look into patent database/buy Western/Asian engineers then ignore intellectual property laws.

The only problem you answered was the raw materials for microchips themselves (not the machines to build them), and on that end all you answered was "silicon", the easiest part to obtain.

Here's another problem: Russia's economy isn't built to produce advanced technological goods, it's built to enrich the oligarchs. That's why factories for outdated planes and tanks haven't been shuttered. You can't build advanced chips when all the tech used is made by people who embezzle half the funds and deliver shoddy products. Crap lithography machine, crap air filtration system to prevent contamination, crap doping machine- yes, I bet the Russians will even embezzle the doping machines!

And Even if they could do it- they're still decades away from reaching current in house production needs.

It's clear- Russia can't produce anything advanced on their own. They're entirely dependent on the West for advanced electronics.

I expect no problem "creating altogether"; "upping capacity" and/or inconsistent quality is where Russian problems generally lie.

Yeah, just like you expected there'd be no problem taking Kyiv.

[YUPPIE]

Zelenksy better not betray or waver in his allegiances to America after all this support. If he lives through this conflict and Ukraine is intact, Ukraine should be pushed as close as possible to the US's sphere of influence.

[ghotihook]

This isn't "money on wars", but foreign aid that happens to be going to a country at war, who may very well be a key strategic ally on the other end of this.

Not directed at you, but it's lame how most Americans don't understand the point of foreign aid or the direct and indirect returns it brings to US interests.

Yea, you're right. I guess it's really no different than sending stuff to a disaster area. It's just different equipment.

[Finlandia WOAT]

Apparently the French aid has been pitiful.

Now granted, it could be because the Ukrainians need outdated tech that their soldiers know how to work- but surely rhe French and Germans could give small arms, newer stuff than AKs, grenades, helmets, medical supplies, MRE''s, even artillery.

Don't they realize what's at stake? If Russia takes Ukraine, the Kremlin will have control over the majority of the grain used to feed North Africa/the Middle East...whenever they feel like it they could trigger a famine that would in turn trigger another refugee crisis. Fight for your own political hides if not for the right of Ukrainians to live in the west.

[Ripster42]

How is it strange when those parties don't exist in the void, and one of them has a jealous abusive ex?

The bad thing in that situation wouldn't be calling the cops (expansion), it'd be the jealous abusive ex (russia).

[YUPPIE]

No, they shouldn't. He should be grateful, as he should be to literally every other country after their support. But he shouldn't be expected to just "not betray or waver" if America does some shady shit in the future. What if he goes against what you're saying here, you want America to do a Russia to teach him a lesson?

knowing what America does to maintain its hold as the superpower of the world, I really doubt America is *only* supporting Ukraine for altruistic reasons, especially considering the longstanding enmity America has for Russia. I'm guessing behind closed doors there's a lot more to this in a "pact" way we wouldn't hear of, of course, but I think swearing fealty is one of them.

[Vladier]

The bad thing in that situation wouldn't be calling the cops (expansion), it'd be the jealous abusive ex (russia).

Can "calling the cops" even be called "consensual and desired by both parties"? Because I think you're muddling the metaphor that Primary Color inadvertently introduced.

No, they shouldn't. He should be grateful, as he should be to literally every other country after their support. But he shouldn't be expected to just "not betray or waver" if America does some shady shit in the future. What if he goes against what you're saying here, you want America to do a Russia to teach him a lesson?

It's YUPPIE, do you even need to ask to know the answer?

[YUPPIE]

Doesn't answer what I asked.

America is supporting Ukraine in a way that's incomparable to other countries and powers. It's not halfassed or bare minimum, it's the kind of expensive support where there has to be something in it for the sender after all is said and done.

[DarkTZeratul]

it's the kind of expensive support where there has to be something in it for the sender after all is said and done.

That something is called hurting Russia.

[Grimbold21]

So now the Ukrainian army is forming a "Freedom for Russia" brigade made up of russian defectors? Is this confirmed to be true?

[zealo]

Can I get some consistency, please?

Broken clock being able to be right twice a day.

Yuppie is a troll, but stating the real world isn't a video game is the only appropriate response to an attempt at a retort as daft as to ask why Putin doesn't invade the US directly.