Current Affairs Ukraine

[bluestevon]

Interesting analysis from Russia.

Kremlin Set to Annex Four Ukraine Territories at Ceremony - The Moscow Times

Russia is expected to annex four occupied regions of Ukraine at a lavish Kremlin ceremony on Friday that follows a threat by President Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in their defense.

www.themoscowtimes.com

Back when it was in paper form it used to be really good on finding any information on any English language events upcoming though tbf, including movie theatres doing English language screenings, social events et Al

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

Moscow times has been utter garbage for forever mate, it was aimed purely at the expat market initially and since going online at the international market.

Not sure who actually even owns it now, I know that it was Dutch owned then Finnish after that and think now it's kinda got dodgy ownership to circumnavigate ownership laws in Russia.

Don't think I've ever seen it do a pro Russian story about anything that thing.


Think Uncle Uzzy had a stake in it at one point though.

It is a trusted source, at least passed as credible in my institute. Left of centre in its postion but generally a high standard. That is from the times I encountered it whilst still involved in supervision and it appears to still carry the same weighting. Novaya gazeta is probably my go to and its good to see they have managed to get around Putin closing them down as he has with most of the free press in Russia. One of the reasons the likes of the Moscow Times operates from Holland. Anything that still exists in Russia that was not closed or sanctioned is the equivilant of A Putin Disney channel, for the most part.

 

[bluestevon]

Whats wrong with the article, since you didnt say?

Nothing mate, it's just a copy paste from AP by them of other people's words.

Just that MT isn't Russian the majority of their senior writers are foreign

 

[bluestevon]

It is a trusted source, at least passed as credible in my institute. Left of centre in its postion but generally a high standard. That is from the times I encountered it whilst still involved in supervision and it appears to still carry the same weighting. Novaya gazeta is probably my go to and its good to see they have managed to get around Putin closing them down as he has with most of the free press in Russia. One of the reasons the likes of the Moscow Times operates from Holland. Anything that still exists in Russia that was not closed or sanctioned is the equivilant of A Putin Disney channel, for the most part.

MT was founded by a Dutch company before the ownership laws in foreign media came in though mate and yeah it's changed hands a lot since then but us in effect still dutch owned with a figurehead Russian majority stakeholder to by pass the law.

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

Haha, well its also why no one on here would be allowed to be at high levels of the government and be in that situation. Not that there arent OTHER things that would disqualify us as well...

Whaaaaa?

If I was in charge there's several posters I'd have as my SPADS.

We'd be sound.

 

[Mutzo Nutzo]

NATO has now officially declared the NordStream pipeline incidents as acts of terrorism.

I’ve had a good old think about this one about who did it. First look at the options. Who has the expertise and the resources.

1.Russia
2.US
3.UK
4.France
5.Israel
6.China

I’ve discounted France, U.K and Israel as I can see no tangible benefits for doing this. So that leaves the big three. Who benefits the most from this?

I’ve discounted US even with Biden idiotic comments, as that’s all they are. If he goes off script he’s screwed. His team must face-palm every time he does this. The pipelines were closed and EU nations have enough gas/oil for this winter and are sourcing from elsewhere.

The only reason that I see them doing this is to increase demand for US gas. I’ve mulled over this but can’t quite reconcile that Biden would sign off on creating this mammoth environmental disaster as well as threaten the solidarity of the nations opposed to Russians invasion of Ukraine just for additional revenue. So for this I’ve discounted them.

Now look at China - how to they benefit from this? Well it means that the EU has demands for more LNG in the long term. Given they are buying gas at highly discounted rates from Russia they would then liquify it and resell it to EU at massively marked up prices. However I don’t see them being drawn into this - they are happy to sit in the sidelines and take advantage of the situation with one eye on Taiwan as always. So I chalked them off.

Well now - let’s take a look at Russia. Well known for staging false flag attacks to be used as precedents for conflict escalation (casus belli). They seem to need to show actual western attacks on their infrastructure so that they can claim NATO (US) is attacking their national interests. Along with NATO weapons being used against “the new” RF oblasts in Ukraine this will give the Moscow mindset the reason to possibly escalate and go nuclear and launch a tactical nuke or two at Ukraine.

The pipelines themselves are not making any money for Russia, so destroying them doesn’t create too many issues. They will still sell gas in bulk to India/China so whatever.

So in summary it wuz dem ruzzians wot did it.

How? I have no idea

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

MT was founded by a Dutch company before the ownership laws in foreign media came in though mate and yeah it's changed hands a lot since then but us in effect still dutch owned with a figurehead Russian majority stakeholder to by pass the law.

The piece linked was written by Farida Rustamova, an exiled Russian journalist, like most free thinking journalists committed to a free press.

Sadly, anything coming out of Russia now through official channels is comms for Putins regime. It is good to see the likes of NG are trying to fight to exist but serious Russian journalist have been pushed out of Russia. What remains is generally a pantomime. If Russia is to have any chance of getting away from the pariah state that it has become it will need a return of the free press to educate its people as to what has happened.

 

[davids]

Absolutely scary when you think about it.

Invade a country.

Claim bits of the country is now in fact theirs.

Threaten nuclear war if the country tries to retake their land as they are now attacking the invader's country.

Simple but monstrous. Terrorist nation.

Oh I remember that one...fake intel that a country has weapons of mass destruction,invade,kill somewhere between a quarter and half a million of its citizens,steal its oil and mineral resources,then make it pay you to rebuild. Sound economic model.

 

[Spadge Vernacular]

 

[Yarrgh]

NATO has now officially declared the NordStream pipeline incidents as acts of terrorism.

I’ve had a good old think about this one about who did it. First look at the options. Who has the expertise and the resources.

1.Russia
2.US
3.UK
4.France
5.Israel
6.China

I’ve discounted France, U.K and Israel as I can see no tangible benefits for doing this. So that leaves the big three. Who benefits the most from this?

I’ve discounted US even with Biden idiotic comments, as that’s all they are. If he goes off script he’s screwed. His team must face-palm every time he does this. The pipelines were closed and EU nations have enough gas/oil for this winter and are sourcing from elsewhere.

The only reason that I see them doing this is to increase demand for US gas. I’ve mulled over this but can’t quite reconcile that Biden would sign off on creating this mammoth environmental disaster as well as threaten the solidarity of the nations opposed to Russians invasion of Ukraine just for additional revenue. So for this I’ve discounted them.

Now look at China - how to they benefit from this? Well it means that the EU has demands for more LNG in the long term. Given they are buying gas at highly discounted rates from Russia they would then liquify it and resell it to EU at massively marked up prices. However I don’t see them being drawn into this - they are happy to sit in the sidelines and take advantage of the situation with one eye on Taiwan as always. So I chalked them off.

Well now - let’s take a look at Russia. Well known for staging false flag attacks to be used as precedents for conflict escalation (casus belli). They seem to need to show actual western attacks on their infrastructure so that they can claim NATO (US) is attacking their national interests. Along with NATO weapons being used against “the new” RF oblasts in Ukraine this will give the Moscow mindset the reason to possibly escalate and go nuclear and launch a tactical nuke or two at Ukraine.

The pipelines themselves are not making any money for Russia, so destroying them doesn’t create too many issues. They will still sell gas in bulk to India/China so whatever.

So in summary it wuz dem ruzzians wot did it.

How? I have no idea

Pipe routes are still available south of nord streams. So supply lines are available. Notably that includes through Ukraine.

Those supply lines may just have become more strategically important now. If Russia refuses to open those lines and winter is particularly hard and/ or long, then we could see a medium to long term game playing out.

I'm still going through my workings to see if it benefits anyone or if I have came up with a tin foil hat theory.

 

[Mutzo Nutzo]

Pipe routes are still available south of nord streams. So supply lines are available. Notably that includes through Ukraine.

Those supply lines may just have become more strategically important now. If Russia refuses to open those lines and winter is particularly hard and/ or long, then we could see a medium to long term game playing out.

I'm still going through my workings to see if it benefits anyone or if I have came up with a tin foil hat theory.

Good luck with that - I’m off to the theatre

 

[davids]

Pipe routes are still available south of nord streams. So supply lines are available. Notably that includes through Ukraine.

Those supply lines may just have become more strategically important now. If Russia refuses to open those lines and winter is particularly hard and/ or long, then we could see a medium to long term game playing out.

I'm still going through my workings to see if it benefits anyone or if I have came up with a tin foil hat theory.

It's fairly straightforward,if you don't blame Russia you'll need to buy some more Bacofoil.

 

[Lobster Johnson]

Good luck with that - I’m off to the theatre

This is the more commonly used definition of theatre, yes?

 

[Noisy noise annoys]

Whaaaaa?

If I was in charge there's several posters I'd have as my SPADS.

We'd be sound.

I am honoured

 

[Mutzo Nutzo]

This is the more commonly used definition of theatre, yes?

Yes mate - I’m off to see Ian Hislop’s new play “Spike” - few beers first though.