The distillation towers are big and complex. Not something you repair in a few days. It takes months. I think that’s why we are seeing renewed attacks on the refineries. They’ve been fixed and are back online. Time to smash them again. Rinse. Repeat.
It’s moot anyway. That whole area is outside NATO’s area. The French overseas departments and Dutch island councils already are outside NATO’s protective umbrella.
British, French and Dutch navies already routinely patrol the Caribbean for drugs and intercept tonnes of it.
Fact remains though that Russia’s receiving more than a bloody nose and every week it gets worse.
Not going to happen.
They all think he’s a twat
Yeah that was bound to happen and no doubt a strategic aim of Kim. That, and oil.
Cynical that now Russia flies troops and equipment into Armenia, not when Armenia needed them when they came under attack and lost territory to Azerbaijan, beyond the disputed parts. The military assistance by treaty never materialised.
They will have lost all maintenance records. I wonder if they got to the backups and destroyed them too. Basically every plane, already a prime hazard, will be a black box. No idea what parts to swap out. When they start flying again they’ll start dropping out the sky.
Zelenskyy was in Istanbul. Putin failed to turn up.
None of what you mention matters. Debt usually rolls over. Generally new bonds pay for the old ones. But nobody is buying new bonds so the due ones cannot be paid. The shortfall was paid with sovereign funds, but that pile is exhausted. Hence the bank is now just printing. It’s the last stage.
It was German for centuries. If you wish to give it back, it would be to Germany not Poland.
Uncanny alley alert.
Just numbers. Unaudited. Plucked from the air.
Funny how they keep calling it “the eastern flank” as if the centre is pointed to the North Pole or Africa lol.
They truly are their own worst enemies aren’t they
China showing its true colours.
130 fiery steel coffins.
We’ve unleashed the kraken.
Shades of Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ 🙃
Putin’s plan all along was weakening the west. He succeeded with Brexit and the deployment of Trump but he also sowed the seeds of a resurgent Europe. Given Russia’s track record with a strong Europe you’d have to conclude his plan is an utter failure.
So that’s why refineries are off the hitlist. I acknowledge the thoroughness of the analysis you share is superb, however, respectfully, it took you some time to reach that conclusion that the US under Trump is in Russia’s camp.
We have seen Trump dissing his own intelligence people many times before to serve up a reality that is more conducive to his aims.
The programme has been in place for a long time. It was in 2016 when NK broke out and was testing its ICBM technology after successfully testing nukes in controlled environments. The window was closing. The opportunity was there to prevent break out. They had a photo op instead, all smiles.
Ballsy.
The elephant in the room: why then was North Korea allowed nuclear weapons?
Sickening
If it looks like a weasel talks like a weasel, it’s probably a weasel.
Long time coming. Good to see its arrival.
Putin’s retaliation comes from the White House.
If you are looking for the definition of the ‘great’ America he is aiming for, here it is.
Ukrainian Russian speakers need protection from Putin. Tens of thousands from the Donbass died in his meat grinder.
They both speak their minds. They’re both blunt. However only one has fragile ego syndrome. Still, the meeting at the Vatican went ok.
What is needed, clearly, is hundreds of ballistic missiles going the other way, as well as a ramp up of defences.
lol it isn’t Europe who breached the UN charter.
This is true. Ukraine has also shown how backward Russia is, that it may be feared but that it is far from invincible and mighty - the image they managed to project successfully up until about three years ago.
EU should go to war with someone. Then you don’t get sanctioned by captain marmalade.
Oldest elected American president ever. All his ageist jokes at Biden’s expense are about to come home to roost.
Yeah it’s weird. He didn’t achieve any of this in his previous four years. What makes him think he can this time, with a far more powerful China in the mix?
Negotiating kills more likely.
They might be waiting for repairs to complete before they smash them again. That’s what I’d do.
Both. It takes two to tango. Trump is outsmarted at every turn.
What an utter fool Putin made him look like.
Putin spotted Trump’s need to sidle with him ages ago and from miles away. He is pumping it for all its worth, making Trump look like a school boy desperate for attention.
You read my mind 😊
You can’t bomb a people into the Stone Age when they already happily live in the Stone Age.
But he’s a savage! Yeah, but he’s OUR savage. - The Commitments
There are still tens of millions of men. These are not highly trained troops. They are ordinary men who realised that they’re far more valuable to their family in a short term death than a long life of poverty, and are prepared to go on that mission.
Is that a Russian armoured pushbike I’m spotting there?
So far so predictable. There was no way Putin was going to be seen in the same city as Zelenskyy, never mind the same room. Still, he got outmanoeuvred, again. Zelenskyy is playing this very well.
That’s OK. No need to dumb things down this is not Facebook, and it helps to keep the trolls at bay.
You are contradicting yourself. Agreeing with my OP, but throwing in a wild “communism can be entirely democratic” when that has never been observed. I’m observing what I observe. You can call it nonsense all you like, I am still seeing reality in front of my eyes. Not sure what you’re looking at.
Left means taking control away from individuals and place that control with collectives. The more left you go the more that control is taken away until there is nothing left and you are no more than an ant in an ant colony. Soviet Union, North Korea, China pre-1970s were/are all extreme left
Putin wants a parade where his forces aren’t humiliated on live tv.
Looks like you didn’t comprehend my comment.
Extreme left, extreme right, in the end it matters little which way a society goes. The end games are indistinguishable.
That makes the rest of Russia near Ukraine a target rich environment. I hope Ukraine saved up thousands of drones for this occasion.
FPP is barely democracy. In New Zealand, after years of scandals and abuse by politicians whom we could not get rid of inside the system, we got rid of the system itself.
Would be nice. And Putin has attacked Kiyv recently so yes the glover are off. But many air defences will be repositioned around Moscow, making other juicy targets more vulnerable.
An assault tractor 😆
They’re trying to exit without supporting Ukraine and with face intact. All these words are just posturing to coat their mess with a veneer of justifiability. Not for the world; they see right through it - for domestic Maga consumption only, riddled with confirmation bias.
It’s a fat and juicy target. It would make militarily sense as well as being payback for the attack on Kyiv the other day. And guaranteed coverage across the Russian empire too.
The irony seems entirely lost on Russians that they have become the ones whose defeat they will celebrate with a glorious parade.
Excellent. I agree.
Hmm ok
That’s a trap. Anyone in need the US, he has leverage and he’ll use it to take all resources.
‘Jest’. He just riffs. If it works out he predicted it of not he was just joking. And he prattles so much at least some of the drivel will agree with some reality some time later - and that’s the bit that conformation bias afflicted members of his sect will solely focus on 🙄
Good article, even if it failed to mention that Aus burned its bridges with France. My opinion: they will never get their US subs. Look what happened during Covid: the US just took plane loads of masks destined elsewhere. When in crisis they’ll do what’s good for them and that’s that.
He covered that in his interview. That local defence industry needs to be able to sustain delivery over long periods of time.
Flippant comment. Defence of the Low Countries is highly integrated. The navies are under one unified Benelux command. The air forces rotate in patrolling and keeping safe the combined airspace of the three Benelux countries.
Witkoff is Putin’s envoy to Trump
He’s so pale.
Yes Thats right. This is Russia’s Afghanistan all over again but on steroids. It is bleeding them dry but they have nowhere to go but forward.
Tatarstan. Ironic. It is the place where Stalin resettled the Tatars, native and original population of Crimea. Ethnically cleansed.
It’s very similar to his Middle East “peace plan” of 2020: to the victor the spoils.
Soon Europe+ will become the successor of NATO, and Ukraine’s admission to NATO moot.
Serbia have a terrible track record. And unlike Germany after WWII, I don’t feel like they have truly chosen the democratic, free path.
You’d have to be bonkers to sign that.
Ukraine stringing captain marmalade along for as long as they can
I don’t think it’s a cave but rather a manipulation of the markets. Some made fortunes. Many lost. It’s the easiest get rich quick scheme for oligarchs in town.
I think he opened the blast oven of economics and stared into it a little too long.
Silly Vance. That Chinese person is clearly wearing a suit.
That’s good. Might want to up your defence spending to 2% as a minimum while you’re at it.
America is at risk of losing its safe haven status. It has used that status to achieve incredibly low interest rates for its bonds, creating a huge source of almost free money. Rolling over those bonds at higher rates would be incredibly costly. A spectacular own goal. Let’s see how this evolves.
Russification through massive people movements into Soviet countries has been happening for generations and did not stop after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Crimea was ethnically predominantly Tatar until Stalin cleansed it and settled Russians there instead.
Ah I wouldn’t know about the pot situation but like anywhere in NZ if you look long enough you’ll find it 😊👍
Been there! Yeah take the terps with you the one local pub would be drunk dry in days. Heaps of blue cod to live on forever. Muttonbirds if things get desperate, fishiest birds I’ve ever eaten lol.
Destabilisation. Chaos is their tool.
Snap 😉
China’s end game is territory, with everything in, on and under it.
Russian levels of fascism, corruption, oligarchy. I’m afraid your democracy is gone. There will be elections but when one party controls almost the entire social media landscape, they will be predetermined. As the last ones were.
De Engelse taal kent miljard niet. Daar gaat het rijtje million billion, trillion enz. Een Nederlands miljard is dus een engelstalig billion.
Imagine if you were US president that worked for Russia, what would you do? Or if you were very very greedy and resource hungry, what would you do? And compare those answers with what Trump does, and I think you found yourself two very good answers.
They have hugely scaled up build capacity. The war atm is destroying everything they build so it’s not obvious. But after this war, at current rates it would take only a few years for them to have recreated their huge army. Largely obsolete, yet formidable due to its volume.
Trump still trying to pillage a democracy
If the hatch is submerged, even partially, the pressure will be too great to open it. Same reason why if your car is in water you cannot open the door.
I wonder if Ukraine agreed to the Black Sea ‘cease fire’ to lure the fleet out of its bolt hole so they can sink them. I mean, if Russia breaks every cease fire, there is no requirement for Ukraine to adhere to it either.
A reduction of oil on the market lifts prices and supports Russia. This is a reversal of Biden’s policy.
Well of course. Two allies chatting about carving up a country, one committed to taking, the other committed to giving. How hard could this possibly be?
We don’t really have free elections anymore. Reason they are pushing for them is because they know they can steer the outcome whilst pretending democracy is still in place. And what steers the elections will also produce acceptance of those elections.