BBC reporter showing a group of a few dozen Ukrainians working together to make Molotov cocktails. Most are women using cheese graters to break down polystyrene to add to the fuel to make it thicker and more likely to stick.
Yeah thank you anarchist cookbook. Trying to stomp it out and wouldn't you know it, now my shoes are on fire.
I don’t believe any of the articles suggested China has a fully viable backup system in place, just that it would accelerate development and adoption. It is possible to handle transactions outside of Swift, they are just slower and more expensive. From what I read, only 2 US banks were cautioning this - and they are the ones with the most international presence. Personally, I believe it is a good thing the Biden administration is hearing this advice. Situations like right now where this entire thread is riled up and animal spirits are kicking in to give every weapon we have to Ukraine require someone giving the longer term, less emotional view. However, the cat is out of the bag now on the international community coming together to use Swift as a political tool. I don’t think it’s necessary to kick Russia off Swift to now make an alternative priority 1 for Russia and China. My primary hesitation on kicking Russia off SWIFT at this point is ultimately my core philosophy that international trade is the biggest driver of peace globally. It forces countries to build and maintain relationships and requires parties to not act in extreme manners. While we have certainly reduced Russia’s ability to be a full participant in the global economy, I don’t think full isolation will bring about positive outcomes. My fear is the sanctions could lead Putin to more extreme measures. Caveat: This is far from my area of expertise and I think I could be convinced in either direction as to whether kicking Russia off swift would be a good idea.
Couple thoughts on the couple posts on the S-400 ineffectiveness 1. Ukraine pilots may be staying low to the ground, going after helo’s instead of fighters, and staying below the S400 engagement radar 2. Russia may be hesitant due to friendly fire concerns, since it’s mostly all Fulcrums or Flankers over Ukraine for both sides 3. Building off point two, both sides might be keeping their IFF (identify Friend or Foe) off to make them harder to target. 4. Russia might be holding back their SAMs so Ukraine can’t target them and counter fire with ballistic missiles/multiple rocket launchers, or to shoot them down is Ukraine fires into Russia, since the S400 is an anti-missile platform first and an anti-aircraft platform second
Speaking of friendly fire. In the waters of the Black Sea, the ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet "friendly fire" destroyed its military aircraft. facebook.com/navy.mil.gov.u…
I would love to know how Ukraine has the humint to know what happened at a meeting with Putin and the oligarchs. That's some next level shit, Bra-fucking-vo on them
Not that I don’t want it to be true, but this reads like psy ops or clout chasing. That said Russia hasn’t taken a single population center in a 4 day blitz. If reported losses are close to true, it’s doubly bad for them and they could be at a breaking point soon. People keep mentioning that Russia has only deployed 1/3 of massed forces as if the other 2/3 are of equal capability when it’s just as likely they are cannon fodder.
Our community actually has a pretty decent sized Ukrainian population, and I have about a dozen patients. Over a week ago, the couple I saw in clinic weren’t worried at all, just assumed this was Putin being a bitch and posturing/threatening. Now they are just stunned/shocked that he actually did it and frantically trying to get their family out of the country. But most refuse to leave.
During the weeks leading into the conflict when we were desperately trying to ring the alarm bells of the invasion, I was always confused why the Ukrainian president kept poo pooing our intelligence and releasing statements to the world implying we were exaggerating.
The government should sanction him and then tell the team not to pay him back what they might “owe” him because it’s the point of a sanction to deprive someone of ill-gotten gains. I’m most skeptical at the claim that this is costing them $20b a day. Maybe $20m? Or $20b rubles? Not USD.
Former Comander of NATO on CNN said that the Russian supply chain is complete shit and the he didn't think the Russians would take Kyiv. He also talked about how the transition to a guerilla war would begin within the next two weeks and that he thinks Russia will lose. Side note: CNN had an online poll. The question : Should NATO go to war over Ukraine? The answer (and this question received more votes that any other question in this shows history): Yes-77% No-23% Holy shit. I'm not going to lie all of this is so fucking inspiring.
If this continues dragging on and the ruble tanks even more, I do wonder if we could leverage SWIFT with China to cool their relationship off a bit. The Chinese are proud and resentful, but also pragmatic, and attaching themselves at the hip to an economic meltdown like Russia is going to go through has to be a scary proposition even for them. It would definitely be risky, but the opportunity is there.
Had not considered that, that’s a good point. But those are sunk costs. If this cost them $20b/day out of their reserves, they basically are going to run out of money in a couple weeks, and that’s the money they’re supposed to live off of while we sanction them back to 1900.
If what I learned in The Kings Man is true, an underground Intelligence agency of maids, butlers, etc. is collecting this information.
I mean, they haven't cut off the Internet in Russia, right? How fucking dumb do they think their people are?
The problem with this analysis, IMO, is two-fold: The first is that it's too Putin-centered. Putin has a great deal of power, yes, but there's something of a Stockholm syndrome between him and the oligarchs. They're only rich because of him and he's only powerful because of them. Kicking Russia out of SWIFT directly and substantially impacts Russian oligarchs immediately. There is no billionaire on this planet loyal enough to anyone to forego their wealth an power to support any one person, even if the person is the one who made them rich. They would sooner sell Putin out than lose money/power, and they can't afford to wait a few years for an alternative platform to get mainlined. That leads to the alternative platform issue. SWIFT works because it has credibility and stability. Try as they might, China isn't entirely trusted yet and they don't have the credibility to build that kind of trust any time soon such that whatever they trot out there will replace SWIFT. Giving Russia a lifeline in this situation just highlights to the rest of the world that China cannot be trusted ever. It's not in their self-interest to go that route. That comes back to the point about American bankers and billionaires. They have investments internationally, much of which includes Russia and Russian oligarch money. They don't want to kick them out of SWIFT because it hurts their own investments, and as we well know by now these guys worth $20 billion simply can't fathom a world where they have to scrape by on a mere $15 billion.